THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS  AND 

THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION, 

1763-1776 


BT 

ARTHUR  MEIER  SCHLESINGER,  A.  M. 

Assistant  Professor  of  American  History,  Ohio  State   University 
Sometime  University  Fellow  in  History,  Columbia  University 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE 

Faculty  of  Political  Science 
Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
1917 


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TO 
MY  MOTHER  AND  FATHER 


380150 


PREFACE 

A  greater  number  of  investigations  of  the  American 
revolutionary  epoch  have  been  made  in  the  last  three  or 
four  decades  than  in  all  the  preceding  years.  This  dili- 
gence has  been  the  outgrowth  of  the  modern  spirit  of 
historical  research  and  has  been  productive  of  results 
which  completely  discredit  the  simple  formulae  by  which 
the  earlier  historians  explained  the  colonial  revolt.  In 
the  light  of  these  studies  it  is  now  almost  universally 
agreed  that  the  revolutionary  movement  was  the  product 
of  a  complexity  of  forces,  governmental  and  personal, 
British  and  colonial,  social,  economic,  geographical  and 
religious.  No  definitive  history  of  the  American  Revol- 
ution can  be  written  until  it  becomes  possible  to  appraise 
each  one  of  these  factors  at  its  true  value. 

In  the  present  work  attention  is  focused  on  the  part 
which  the  colonial  merchants  played — willingly  and  un- 
willingly— in  bringing  about  the  separation  of  the  thir- 
teen colonies  from  the  mother  country.  This  has  ren- 
dered necessary  some  discussion  of  the  evolution,  of  the 
radical  party,  with  its  shifting  program,  membership  and 
methods ;  but  the  latter  theme,  so  fascinating  in  its  pos- 
sibilities, is  entirely  incidental  to  the  main  purpose  of 
the  book. 

The  most  distinctive  activity  undertaken  by  the  mer-# 
6hants  was  the  formation  of  non-intercourse  agreements.* 
These   agreements,    because   of   the   peculiar   part   they 
played  in   the  development  of  revolutionary   sentiment, 
receive  extended  consideration  in  the  present  work.     No 

5 


6  PREFACE 

reader  will  leave  these  pages  without  perceiving  the 
source  of  inspiration  for  the  Jeffersonian  policy  of  com- 
mercial coercion  adopted  in  the  early  nineteenth  century. 
If  the  latter  years  of  the  revolutionary  movement  be 
■  taken  for  the  purpose,  the  similarity  will  be  seen  to  be 
Imore  than  superficial.  In  each  case  the  non-m.ercantile 
•elements  holding  the  reins  of  power  were  driving  a  re- 
luctant minority  of  merchants  into  a  sacrifice  of  trading 
interests  for  a  good  desired  only  by  the  former. 

John  Adams  once  wrote  that  the  great  problem  of  the 
revolutionary  movement  was  to  get  the  thirteen  clocks 
to  strike  at  the  same  time.  My  own  belief  is  that  in- 
stead of  thirteen  revolutionary  movements,  as  Adams 
suggests,  there  were  fundamentally  only  two,  one  func- 
tioning along  characteristic  lines  in  the  northern  pro- 
vinces, and  the  other  developing  in  a  characteristic  way 
in  the  southern  provinces.  This  view  of  events  has  fur- 
nished the  mode  of  attack  which  has  been  utilized  in 
dealing  with  the  multitudinous  happenings  of  the  indivi- 
dual provinces. 

This  volume  appears  deep-freighted  with  my  obliga- 
tions to  many  fellow-workers  in  the  field  of  history.  In 
particular  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Professor  Herbert  L. 
Osgood,  of  Columbia  University,  who  first  directed  my 
attention  to  the  subject  of  colonial  non-intercourse  and 
whose  constructive  criticism  has  improved  my  work  in 
content  and  form.  To  my  colleague,  Professor  Henry 
R.  Spencer.  I  am  deeply  grateful  for  many  helpful  sug- 
gestions made  in  the  course  of  reading  the  manuscript. 
Indirectly  I  owe  much  to  the  example  of  certain  inspiring 
teachers,  particularly  to  that  of  Dean  George  Wells 
Knight,  of  Ohio  State  University,  who  in  my  under- 
graduate days  first  awakened  in  me  a  scholarly  interest 
in  history.     I  wish  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to 


PREFACE  y 

Mr.  John  Bennett,  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  for  kindly  gath- 
ering material  for  me  in  the  Loyalist  Transcripts.  I 
desire  also  to  say  that  Professor  C.  M.  Andrews'  splendid 
essay  on  "  The  Boston  Merchants  and  the  Non-Importa- 
tion Movement"  {Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  xix)  did 
not  reach  my  hands  in  time  to  be  of  assistance  to  me ; 
but  I  have  availed  myself  of  the  opportunity  to  make 
footnote  references  to  it  from  time  to  time.  I  could  not 
conclude  these  personal  acknowledgments  without  reg- 
istering the  deep  sense  of  my  obligation  to  my  wife, 
Elizabeth  Bancroft,  who  has  been  of  great  assistance  to 
me  at  every  stage  of  my  labors. 

Through  the  generosity  of  the  editors  of  the  Political 
Science  Quarterly  I  have  been  enabled  to  make  free  use 
of  material  which  appeared  in  an  article  entitled  "The 
Uprising  against  the  East  India  Company,"  in  vol.  xxxii, 
no.  I.  Finally,  I  take  great  pleasure  in  recording  my 
appreciation  of  the  untiring  courtesy  and  unfailing  help- 
fulness of  the  officers  and  assistants  of  the  following 
libraries  :  Library  of  Congress,  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  Massachusetts  State  Library,  Boston  Public 
Library,  New  York  Public  Library,  Columbia  University 
Library,  New  York  Historical  Society,  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  Historical  Society,  Charleston 
Library  Society,  Ohio  State  Archaeological  and  Histor- 
ical Society,  Greene  County  (Ohio)  Library  Association, 
Ohio  State  University  Library,  and  Ohio  State  Library, 

A.  M.  S. 
Ohio  State  University, 
October,  1917. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Old  O^er  Changeth 

PAGE 

'Effects  of  British  commercial  and  financial  supervision  on  the  colonies  ...  15 

-Economy  of  commercial  provinces 22 

JDominance  of  merchant  class  in  commercial  provinces 27 

Economy  of  plantation  provinces 32 

Leadership  of  planting  class  in  plantation  provinces 34 

'^  Survey  of  colonial  smuggling  to  1763 39 

CHAPTER  II 
The  First  Contest  fur  Commercial  Reform  (1764-1766) 

"Restrictive  acts  of  1764        50 

•Sectionalization  of  discontent 54 

First  stage  of  industrial  depression 56 

■beginning  of  organized  opposition  on  part  of  merchants 59. 

"Broadening  the  basis  of  protest 62 

■Early  movement  for  retrenchment  in  commercial  provinces 63 

*Stamp  Act  (1765)  and  its  economic  burden 65 

Popular  demonstrations  in  commercial  provinces "Jl 

Contrast  with  plantation  provinces 73 

,  Union  of  commercial  and  plantation  provinces  in  Stamp  Act  Congress  ...  75 

Organized  efforts  for  economic  relief  in  commercial  provinces 76 

-Remedial  legislation  of  Parliament  (1766) 82 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Second  Movement  for  Commerclal  Reform  (1767-1770) 

iPosition  of  merchant  class  early  in  1767 9^ 

Townshend  legislation  (1767) 93 

pGeneral  modes  of  opposition 9^ 

i  Opposition  to  regulations  against  smuggling  (1767-1770) 97 

•General  character  of  non-importation  movement 105 

9 


lO  CONTEXTS 

PAGE 

New  England   town  movement  for  non-consumption  (October,  1767 — Feb- 
ruary,  1768) 106 

Efforts  for  a  tri-city  mercantile  league  of  non-importation  (March — June, 

1768) 113 

Independent   boycott  agreements  in  chief  trading   towns  (August,   1768 — 

March,  1769) I20 

Attempt  to  extend  scope  of  mercantile  agreemen's  (October,  1769)  ...  131 

Non-importation  movement  in  plantation  provinces 134 

In  Virginia 135 

In  Maryland 138 

In  South  Carolina      ,    , 140 

In  Georgia 147 

In  North  Carolina 148 

Boycott  agi-eements  in  minor  northern  provinces 149 

In  Delaware 149 

In  New  Jersey 150 

In  Connecticut 150 

In  Rhode  Island 152 

In  New  Hampshire 155 

CHAPTER  IV 
Enforcement  and  Breakdown  of  Non-Importation  (1768-1770) 

-Difficulties  of  judging  execution  of  non-importation ic6 

Enforcement  at  Boston 156 

Enforcement  at  New  York 1S6 

Enforcement  at  Philadelphia 191 

Enforcement  in  other  northern  provinces   . 194 

Accession  of  New  Hampshire  to  non-importation 194 

Uncandid  course  of  Rhode  Island 195 

Enforcement  in  Delaware,  New  Jersey  and  Connecticut 196 

CHAPTER  V 

Enforcement  and  Breakdown  of  Non-Importation  [Continued) 

Operation  of  non-importation  in  plantation  provinces 197 

Situation  in  Virginia 198 

Situation  in  Maryland 199 

Enforcement  in  South  Carolina 202 

Enforcement  in  North  Carolina 208 

Early  defection  of  Georgia 209 

General  trend  toward  relaxation  of  non  importation 209 


CONTENTS  1 1 


PAGE 


Movement  of  great   trading  towns  to  terminate  non-importation    (April — 

October,  1770) 217 

Collapse  of  non-importation  in  plantation  provinces  (October,  1770 — July, 

177  0 233 

Coercive  effects  of  non-importation  in  England 236 


CHAPTER  VI 

Colonial  Prosperity  and  a  New  Peril  (1770-1773) 

iNMienation  of  merchant  class  from  radicals 240 

Return  of  prosperity 241 

Widespread  acquiescence  in  tea  duty 244 

XTontinuance  of  smuggling 246 

Attempt  of  radicals  to  revive  agitation  (November,  1772 — July,  1773).    •    •  253 

'Cause  for  renewal  of  opposition  :   tea  act  of  1773 262 

Analysis  of  literature  of  protest 265 

CHAPTER  Vn 

The  Struggle  With  the  East  India  Company  (1773-1774) 

Inauguration  of  movement  of  opposition  at  Philadelphia      ........  279 

Development  of  Boston  opposition  to  tea  shipments 281 

Course  of  opposition  at  Philadelphia 290 

I  Course  of  opposition  at  Nevr  York 291 

Course  of  opposition  at  Charleston 294 

Effect  of  Boston  Tea  Party  on  colonial  opinion 298 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Contest  of  Merchants  and  Radicals  for  Dominance  in  the  Commer- 
cial Provinces  (March — August,  1774) 

Passage  of  coercive  acts  of  1774 3^5 

"•Effect  of  coercive  acts  on  American  opinion • 306 

Tvlovement  in  commercial  provinces  for  non-intercourse 311 

In  New  England 3" 

In  New  York 327 

In  Pennsylvania 34' 

In  New  Jersey 35^ 

In  Delaware      357 


/ 


12  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  IX 

Contest  of  Merchants  and  Radicals  for  Dominance  in  the  Planta- 
tion  Provinces  (May — October,  1774) 

Factors  conditioning  the  non  intercourse  movement  in  plantation  provinces  .  359 

Action  of  Maryland  ...        360 

Measures  of  Virginia 362 

Attitude  of  North  Carolina 370 

Course  of  South  Carolina .    .  373 

Backwardness  of  Georgia 379 

Indications  of  rising  tide  of  radicalism  in  British  America      ....            .  386 

Combination  of  workingmen  at  Boston  and  New  York  against  Gage     .  386 

Destruction  of  the  Peggy  Stewart  at  Annapolis            388 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Adoption  of  the  Continental  Association 
(September — October,  1774) 

Genesis  of  First  Continental  Congress            393 

•Factors  determining  the  policy  of  Congress 396 

Proccedmgs  of  First  Continental  Congress 410 

CHAPTER  XI 

Ratification  of  the  Continental  Association 
(November,  1774 — June,  1775) 

Position  of  moderates  after  First  Continental  Congress             432 

Literature  of  protest                                 435 

Establishment  of  Association  in  commercial  provinces 440 

In  Massachusetts        . •    •                  44O 

In  New  H  unpshire 442 

— ~In  Rhode  Island 444 

Jn  Connecticut                                              .                     444 

In  New  York                  .    .                          .    .  447 

In  New  Jersey      ....            ...  455 

In  Pennsylvania                                                                 456 

In  Del.iware                    ...                                   .    .  460 

Establishment  of  Association  in  plantation  provinces                 460 

In  Maryland       .             ...             .                 461 

In  Virginia          461 

•  In  North  Carolina                               ...                              ...  462 

'"^    In  South  Cirolina      ...             464 

Failure  ot  Georgia  to  r.ttity                            469 


CONTENTS  13 

PAGB 

CHAPTER  XII 

Five  Months  of  the  Association  in  the  Commercial  Provinces 
(December,  1774 — April,  1775) 

'General  conditions  affecting  operation  of  Association 473 

Workings  of  Association  in  Massachusetts 476 

Workings  of  Association  in  New  Hampshire 483 

Workings  of  Association  in  Rhode  Island 485 

Workings  of  Association  in  Connecticut 486 

Workings  of  Association  in  New  York 489 

Workings  of  Association  in  New  Jersey 493 

Workings  of  Association  in  Pennsylvania 495 

Workings  of  Association  in  Delaware     .    .            • 502 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Five  Months  of  the  Association  in  the  Plantation  Provinces 
General  Conclusions 

Contrast  with  commercial  provinces 504 

Workings  of  Association  in  Maryland 504 

Workings  of  Association  in  Virginia 509 

Workings  of  Association  in  North  Carolina 519 

Workings  of  Association  in  South  Carolina 525 

Employment  of  provincial  boycott 529 

Regulation  of  coastwise  trade  .    .    .    .    ....    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    ...  534 

^Qeneral  conclusiang  ks'fonon-importation  regulation  in  all  provmce^^   .    .  535 

*\^Egects  of  Continrptil  />nnrrrfntinn  nn  Timt  Pritmn '~zZS>  •    •    •  53^ 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Transformation  of  the  Association  (April,  1775 — July,  1776) 

"Cause  of  transformation  of  Continental  Association 541 

Widespread  adoption  of  defense  associations 542 

Belated  accession  of  Georgia  to  Continental  Association 546 

Changing  functions  of  committees  of  observation 552 

Early  adoption  of  non-exportation  for  military  purposes 559 

Modifications  in  Continental  Association  made  by  Second  Continental  Con- 
gress      563 

Advent  of  non-exportation 570 


14  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XV 
Transformation  of  thk  Association  {Continued) 

Nullification  of  acts  of  navigation  and  trade 576 

Relaxation  of  tea  non-consumption 581 

Removal  of  restraint  on  prices 584 

^Merchant  class  and  the  supreme  decision      591 

Appendix 607 

Bibliography 614 

Index 631 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Old  Order  Changeth 

^HE  century  closing  with  the  treaty  of  Paris  of  1763 
was  the  Golden  Age  of  commerce  for  the  merchants  of 
the  thirteen  continental  English  colonies.'  The  location 
of  these  colonies  in  the  temperate  zone  and  the  relative 
newness  of  some  of  them  had  caused  the  mother  country 
to  accord  to  them  a  treatment  different  from  that  ex- 
tended to  the  tropical  colonies.  In  particularthey'had 
been  enabled  to  escape  ir»st  of  the  injurious  restraints 
which  a  thorough  application  of  the  mercantilist  theory 
would  have  involved— a  theory  dear  to  the  economic 
writers  of  the  times  and  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  one 
which  would  have  converted  the  colonies  into  mere 
sources  of  supply  and  markets  for  the  English  merchants 
and  manufacturers.  Under  these  favoring  circumstances, 
the  colonists  acquiesced  without  serious  complaint  in  the 
British  commercial  system,  and  found  the  burdens  which 
it  imposed  counterbalanced  by  corresponding  benefits.' 
•\The  foundation   stone  of  the  commercial  system  was 

^  The  summary  of  the  effects  of  the  British  commercial  policy,  which 
follows,  is  based  principally  upon  the  anonymous  pamphlet,  The  In- 
terest of  the  Merchants  and  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
Present  Contest  with  the  Colonies  Stated  and  Considered  (London, 
1774);  and  upon  the  following  monographic  studies:  Ashley,  W.  J., 
"  The  Commercial  Legislation  of  England  and  the  American  Colonies, 
1660-1760,"  in  Surveys  Historic  and  Economic  (New  York,  1900),  and 
Beer,  G.  L.,  The  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American 
Colonies  (Col.  U.  Studies,  vol.  iii,  no.  2). 

15 


1 6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

the  navigation  act  of  1660,  which  confined  the  colonial 
carrying  trade  wholly  to  English  and  colonial  shipping. 
Under  operation  of  this  monopoly,  ship  building  had 
become  a  lucrative  source  of  wealth  for  colonial  capital- 
ists and  of  employment  for  colonial  artisans  and  sailors. 
The  most  comprehensive  regulation  affecting  the  dis- 
tribution of  goods  was  the  requirement  that  European 
commodities  imported  into  the  colonies  must  be  laden  and 
shipped  in  England.'  The  hardship  which  this  restric- 
tion imposed  on  the  colonies  was  theoretical  rather  than 
actual.  For  one  thing  .^the  Americans  genefal^ly  found 
it  more  profitable  to  buy  British  manufactures  than  for- 
eign wares  because  of  the  superior  quality  and  lower 
price  of  the  former.  This  position  of  superiority,  en- 
joyed by  the  English  merchant  and  manufacturer  inde- 
pendent of  any  legal  advantage,  made  it  possible  for  them 
to  retain  their  American  market  even  after  the  colonies 
had  established   independence.''  ,  Furthermore,   England 

'There  were  a  few  exceptions;  e.  g.,  wines  from  Madeira  and  the 
Azores;  salt  from  any  port  of  Europe  for  the  New  England  fisheries, 
and,  at  a  later  time,  for  Pennsylvania  and  New  York;  provisions, 
horses  and  servants  from  Ireland  and  Scotland ;  and  later,  linen  from 
Ireland.  >^__ 

'Lord  Sheffield,  by  comparing  the  prices  of  standard  British" manu- 
factures with  foreign-made  wares,  mad^e  it  apparent  that  "  the  pre- 
ference formerly  given  [by  the  American  colonists]  was  not  the  effect 
of  our  restrictions  .  .  ."  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the 
American  States  (London,  1783),  p.  234.  So,  also,  a  London  merchant 
in  the  American  trade  testified  before  the  House  of  Commons  in 
1775  that  printed  calicoes  and  other  colored  and'  striped  goods,  and 
probably  also  muslins  and  silk  handerchiefs,  could  be  procured  on 
better  terms  in  England  than  in  Holland.  All  these  were  important 
articles  of  American  consumption.  Stevens,  B.  F..  Facsimiles  of  Mss. 
in  European  Archives  etc.  (London,  1889-98),  vol.  xxiv,  no.  2037,  p. 
16.  Madison  wrote  in  1785  that  "  our  trade  was  never  more  compleatly 
monopolized  by  G.  B.,  when  if  was  under  the  direction  of  the  British 
Parliament  than  it  is  at  this  moment."  Madison,  James,  Writings, 
(Hunt,  G.,  ed.),  vol.  ii,  p.  147. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH 


17 


was,  by  virtue  of  her  geographical  position  with  refe- 
rence to  continental  Europe,  the  natural  entrepot  for 
most  of  the  outgoing  European  trade  to  the  colonies. 
{tn  the  case  of  non-English  manufactures,  usually  the 
the  greater  portion  of  the  English  import  duty  was  re- 
funded, or  "  drawnback,"  upon  re-shipment  of  the  goods 
to  America,  \vith  the  result  that  certain  goods,'  such  as 
German  linens,fsold  more  cheaply  in  the  colonies  than 
in  the  hom.e  country.'**  If  the  parliamentary  regulations 
did  sometimes  tend  to  cramp  iVmerican  commercial  op- 
portunities, the  colonists  were  apt  to  ignore  the  restric- 
tions and,  as  Lord  Sheffield  says  wnth  a  large  measure  of 
truth,  "  it  is  well  known  that  from  the  first  they  uni- 
formly did  evade  them  whenever  they  found  it  to  their 
interest."  ')> 

JKs  for  the  colonial  e^^piirt  commerce,  little  or  no  re- 
straint was  imposed  on  the  trade  of  the  northern  col- 
onies with  foreign  countries,  except  in  so  far  as  the  law 
governing  imports  compelled  the  colonial  shipmasters 
to  take  their  return  cargoes  back  to  /America  by  way 
of  England*  ^^They  might  send  their  articles  of  commerce 
the  world  over,  wherever  a  market  could  be  found,  with 
the  exception  during  the  eighteenth  century  of  naval 
stores,  wdiich,  being  confined  to  the  English  market, 
were  favored  w^ith  governmental  bounties,  ^nly  on  their 
trade  with  the  mother  country  were  Ihe  restrictions  on 
exports  of  any  apparent  importance.  By  the  termiS  of 
the  so-called  corn  laws,  English  ports  were  closed, 
either  absolutely  or  by  heavy  duties,  to  colonial  cereals 
and  meats  ;  and  a  discriminatory  duty  was  laid  on  oil  and. 
blubber  imported  in  colonial  vessels.     This  deprived  the 

'  The  drawback  amounted  to  all  but  one-half  of  the  "  Old  Subsidy  " 
of  1660,  or  about  2^^%,.     Vide  Va.  Mag.  Hist,  and  Biog.,  vol.  xi,  p.  142. 
■Op.  cit.,  p.  234. 


■'^ 


1 8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

northern  colonists  of  convenient  articles  of  exchange  for 
British  manufactures  and  would  have  proved  a  serious 
restraint  had  they  not  been  free  to  seek  elsewhere  com- 
modities that  could  be  marketed  in  England. 

Like  naval  stores,  the  staple  of  Virginia  and  Maryland 
was  an  "  enumerated  "  article,  and  thus  the  tobacco  of 
these  colonies  could  be  exported  only  to  the  home  coun- 
try ;  but  careful  provision  was  made  that  colonial  to- 
bacco should  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  the  home  market  even 
at  the  expense  of  English  farmers  and  foreign  importers. 
In  the  case  of  South  Carolinia  and  Georgia,  the  ex- 
portation of  rice  was  early  in  the  eighteenth  century 
confined  to  Great  Britain  where  it  also  was  given  a 
monopoly  of  the  market.  After  1730  this  staple,  upon 
payment  of  one-half  of  the  British  duties,  was  admitted 
directly  to  the  southern  countries  of  Europe,  whither 
nearly  one-fourth  of  the  exported  crop  went.  North 
Carolina  was  affected  by  the  regulations  as  to  tobacco 
and  rice  and,  more  largely,  by  the  restraint  on  the  ex- 
portation of  naval  supplies;  but,  as  has  been  noted,  this 
last  industry  was  subsidized  by  the  British  government, 
and  without  such  help  it  could  not  have  maintained  it- 
self against  the  competition  of  Sweden. 

Notwithstanding  that  colonial  tobacco  and  rice  could 
under  most  circumstances  be  sent  only  to  the  home 
country,  these  products  enjoyed  fairly  free  access  to  the 
continental  European  market,  for  on  re-exportation  from 
England  the  whole  or  the  greater  part  of  the  import 
duty,  as  the  law  at  any  given  time  provided,  w^as  re- 
mitted as  a  "  drawback."  Thus,  toward  the  end  of  the 
colonial  era  four-fifths  of  the  tobacco  carried  to  England 
was  re-shipped  by  British  merchants  to  the  continent, 
and  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  American  rice  was  re-ex- 
ported to  the  North  German  and  Dutch  manufacturing 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  19 

towns.  As  England  was  on  the  direct  route  between 
the  colonies  and  the  European  ports  north  of  Cape  Fin- 
isterre,  the  additional  freight  charge  was  not  high. 
Even  if  colonial  vessels  had  gone  directly  to  the  conti- 
nental ports  and  thus  deprived  the  British  middlemen  of 
their  profits,  they  would  have  found  it  difificult  to  secure 
return  cargoes. 

<CS-0  far  as  the  regulations  of  exports  and  imports  were 
concerned,  the  colonies  north  of  Maryland  were  not  ser- 
iously affected  ;  and  the  restraints  on  the  southern  col- 
onies were  balanced  by  governmental  subsidies  and  vested 
privileges  in  the  English  market.'>  But  other  features  of 
the  commercial  system  bore  a  somewhat  closer  relation 
to  the  industrial  life  of  the  northern  colonies.  Most 
notable  in  this  connection  was  the  Molasses  Act  of  1733, 
which  was  designed  by  means  of  prohibitive  duties  to 
compel  the  rum  distillers  and  dealers  of  New  England 
and  elsewhere  to  buy  molasses,  sugar  and  rum  of  British,, 
instead  of  foreign,  colonies  in  the  West  Indies.  But,  as 
we  shall  see,  this  law,  oppressive  in  intent  but  not  in 
execution,  had  its  chief  effect  in  increasing  the  volume 
of  colonial  smuggling. 

Restraints  were  also  placed  upon  the  exportation  of 
certain  manufactures.  If  the  British  merchants  and  the 
Board  of  Trade  could  have  had  their  way,  these  restric- 
tions would  have  been  sweeping  and  effectual ;  but  as  it 
was,  410  earnest  effort  was  made  either  to  prevent  manu- 
factures generally  or  to  prohibit  any  manufacturing  for  pri- 
vate consumption  within  a  colony.  In  1699  ^^  ^^as  enacted 
that  no  woolen  manufactures  should  be  exported  from 
the  colonies,  transported  from  one  colony  to  another  or 
from  one  place  to  another  in  the  same  colony.  In  1732 
the  exportation  of  locally-made  hats  from  a  colony  was 
forbidden.     In  the  middle  of  the  century  a  third  law  for- 


20  THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

bade  the  erection  of  any  new  steel  furnaces  or  slitting 
mills,  although  country  forges  where  nails  and  farm  im- 
plements were  wrought  were  not  in  any  wise  affected. 
This  last  restriction  worked  some  hardship  on  the  col- 
onies north  of  Maryland  ;  but  the  ill  wind  blew  favorably 
for  Virginia  and  Maryland,  for  these  colonies  profited 
by  the  special  encouragement  which  the  act  granted  for 
the,  American  production  of  bar  iron  and  pig  iron. 
--^ /The  three  laws  against  manufacturing  may,  in  general, 
be  considered  as  having  had  little  effect,  for  the  reason 
that  even  the  northern  colonies  showed  small  promise 
of  developing  im^portant  manufacturing  interests.  Causes 
unconnected  with  the  British  commercial  system  oper- 
ated against  the  establishment  of  manufacturing,  except 
for  household  purposes  :  the  abundance  of  land  in  propor- 
tion to  the  population  ;  the  resulting  high  price  of  labor  ; 
and  the  want  of  sufficient  capital.'  The  thousands  ofv 
British  workingmen  who  migrated  to  America  in  the 
last  quarter-century  of  the  colonial  era  found  it  more 
profitable  and  congenial  to  become  farmers  or  seafarers 
than  to  labor  at  their  old  occupations.  Colonial  capital- 
ists found  a  better  investment  for  their  capital  in  commerce 

/'Gallatin  assigned  the  same  reasons  for  the  natural  industrial  back- 
wardness of  the  country  in  1810  in  his  "Report  on  Manufactures."' 
Am.  St.  Papers,  Finance,  vol.  ii,  pp.  425-426.  Colonists  and  Englishmen 
at  home  widely  appreciated  that  natural  conditions  in  the  colonies 
were  unfavorable  to  the  development  of  manufacturing.  E.  g.,  vide 
"  An  Essay  on  the  Trade  of  the  Northern  Colonies  "  in  Bos.  Ere.  Post, 
Jan.  30,  Feb.  6,  1764;  article  by  "A  North  American,"  copied  into 
A''.  Y.  Merc.,  June  10,  1765;  article  in  Conn.  Cour.,  Aug.  17,  1767;  the 
pamphlet,  The  Int.  of  Merchants  and  Mfrs..  pp.  20-21 ;  reports  of 
following  governors  to  home  government :  IMoore,  of  N.  Y.,  N.  Y. 
Col.  Docs.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  888-889;  Wentworth,  of  N.  H.,  British  Papers 
{"Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  i,  p.  6;  Sharpe,  of  Md.,  Md.  Arch.,  vol.  xiv,  pp. 
496-497;  Franklin,  of  N.  J.,  i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  31-32;  Macpherson, 
D.,  Annals  of  Commerce  (London,  1805),  vol.  iii,  pp.  186-191  ;  Franklin, 
Benj..  Writings  (Smyth,  A.  H.,  ed.),  vol.  v,  p.  116. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  C  HAN  GET  H  21 

or  agriculture  and  refused  to  hazard  their  resources  in 
manufacturing  enterprises  of  any  size,  even  in  later  times 
when  non-importation  agreements  were  creating  an  arti- 
ficial demand  for  colonial  wares.'  ^ 

An  act  of  ParliamiCnt  of  1732  sought  to  safeguard 
British  investments  in  colonial  businesses  by  protecting 
creditors  at  home  against  discriminatory  colonial  legis- 
lation designed  to  impede  the  collection  of  their  debts. 
The  act  was  passed  upon  petition  of  some  London  mer- 
chants. It  provided  that  the  affidavit  of  a  British  sub- 
ject at  home  should  have  the  same  force  as  evidence 
given  in  open  court  in  the  colonies  and  that  the  lands, 
tenements  and  negroes  owned  by  the  colonists  should 
be  liable  for  the  payment  of  debts  in  much  the  same 
manner  as  real  estate  was  in  England.  The  undoubted 
effect  of  the  law  was  that  colonial  merchants  and  planters 
of  substance  were  enabled  to  secure  a  more  generous 
credit;  the  chief  hardship  of  the  regulation  fell  on  the 
unthrifty  and  unfortunate  in  the  colonies. 

Another  regulation  of  Parliament,  aimed  solely  at  New 
England,  prohibited  the  issue  of  legal-tender  paper 
money  after  1751,.  Beginning  in  1690,  Massachusetts 
had  been  beguiled  into  the  use  of  paper  currency  through 
the  heavy  expenses  entailed  by  the  successive  French 
and  Indian  wars.  Merchants  of  substance  and  the  royal 
officials  in  the  colony  viewed  this  deluge  of  paper  money 
with  dismay.  Other  colonies  followed  the  example  of 
Massachusetts,  with  varying  degrees  of  good  faith.  ^The 
upshot  was  the  act  of  1751  directed  against  the  New 
England   governments  where  the  evil  was  worst. ^/  This 

^"A.  Z."  in  Bos.  Gaz.,  Feb.  20,  1769. 

'Davis,  A.  McF.,  Currency  and  Banking  in  Massachusetts  Bay  (3 
Am.  Econ.  Assn.  Pubs.),  vol.  i.  pp.  253-265;  Russell,  E.  B.,  The  Re- 
view of  American  Colonial  Legislation  by  the  King  in  Council  (Col. 
U.  Studies,  vol.  Ixiv,  no.  2),  pp.  120-124. 


\ 


22  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

law,  though  failing  to  meet  the  need  which  undoubtedly  - 
existed  for  a  more  abundant  circulating  medium,  insured 
a  safe  currency  and  stabilized  business  conditions  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  men  of  means  and  the  creditor  class 
generally  in  New  England j> 

/It  would  appear,  then,  that  the  business  men  of  the  col- 
i  ^  onies  north  of  Maryland  had  little  reason  to  quarrel  with 
the  British  commercial  and  financial  regulations  as  they 
actually  operated  prior  to  the  reign  of  George  III.  In- 
deed, under  parliamentary  supervision,  the  colonies  had 
made  such  progress  in  wealth  and  population  as  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  all  Europe.  /  There  were  besides,  as 
we  shall  see  presently,  other  powerful  ties  of  interest 
that  bound  the  colonial  business  and  planting  class  to 
the  mother  country.  It  was  a  perception  of  these  facts 
that  prompted  Franklin  to  say  in  1754  of  the  restrictive 
regulations  of  Parliament:  "These  kind  of  secondary 
taxes,  however,  we  do  not  complain  of,  though  we  have 
no  share  in  the  laying  or  disposing  of  them;"'  and 
caused  James  Otis  to  declare  in  1764:  "The  act  of  navi- 
gation is  a  good  act,  so  are  all  that  exclude  foreign 
manufactures  from  the  plantations,  and  every  honest  man 
will  readily  subscribe  to  them."^    /- 

From  north  to  south,  the  colonial  economy  revealed 
marked  contrasts  which  were  destined  to  have  far-reach- 
ing consequences.  Fundamentally,  the^provinces  fell 
into  two  clearly  differentiated  groups. ^^Tprth  of  Mary- 

^  Franklin,  JVritings  (Smji:h),  vol.  iii,  p.  236. 
The  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies  Asserted  and  Proved   (Boston, 
1764),  pp.  54-55. 

*  Viewing  the  matter  from  a  somewhat  different  angle,  Professor 
C.  M.  Andrews  has  made  this  luminous  remark :  "  The  real  difference 
between  the  north  and  the  south  in  colonial  times  lay  not  in  politics, 
law,  religion,  education,  in  manners,  customs,  or  mental  attitudes.     It 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  23 

land  were  the  commercial  provinces,  regions  in  which 
the  economic  hfe  centered  chiefly  in  marine  activity,  as 
in  New  England,  or  else  depended  very  largely  upon 
trading,  with  agriculture  as  an  important  local  feeder,  as 
in  the  Middle  Provinces.*  In  the  commercial  provinces  -/ 
the  most  influential  men  were  merchants  or  lawyers 
allied  with  them,  and  political  life  radiated  from  the 
trading  centers.\  South  of  this  group  lay  the  plantation 
provinces,  where  the  native  economic  interests  were 
almost  exclusively  agricultural  along  specialized  lines 
and  the  trading  relations  were  managed  by  merchants 
of  the  mother  country  or  coastwise  by  northern  mer- 
chants. Here  towns  were  small  and  for  the  most  part 
unimportant,  and  political  leadership  fell  to  the  owners 
of  the  great  plantationsT^X 

Each  group  of  provinces  displayed  a  wide  diversity  of 
industry  and  trade  within  itself.^  A  facetious  member 
of  the  South  Carolina  Assembly  was  heard  to  remark 
when  a  proposal  for  a  Stamp  Act  Congress  was  under 
consideration  :  "  If  you  agree  to  the  proposition  of  corn- 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  southern  colonies  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  colonial  period  represented  a  purely  agricultural 
form  of  life  without  towns,  trading  communities,  variety  of  industrial 
interests  and  competition,  and  consequently  without  that  ingenuity  and 
scientific  skill  which  is  essential  to  the  spread  of  democratic  ideas  and 
the  increase  of  wealth."  The  Colonial  Period  (New  York,  1912),  pp. 
105-106. 

1  One  New  England  writer  said :  "  'Tis  not  difficult  to  prove  clearly, 
the  whole  Product  of  the  Lands  to  the  Northward  of  Maryland  is  not 
equal  in  Value  to  the  fourth  Part  of  our  Imports  from  Great  Britain." 
Bos.  Post-Boy,  Nov.  28,  1763. 

^  The  subject  of  colonial  economic  conditions  had  been  treated  in 
innumerable  places.  For  excellent  general  discussions,  vide  Ford,  W. 
C,  "  Colonial  America,"  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  340-370 : 
and  Johnson,  E.  'R.,  History  of  Dovicstic  and  Foreign  Commerce  of 
the  United  States  (Washington,  1915),  vol.  i,  pp.  3-121. 


24 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


posing  a  Congress  of  deputies  from  the  different  British 
colonies,  what  sort  of  a  dish  wiil  you  make.  New-Eng- 
land will  throw  in  fish  and  onions.  The  middle  states 
flax-seed  and  flour.  Maryland  and  Virginia  will  add 
tobacco.  North-Carolina,  pitch,  tar  and  turpentine. 
South-Carolina,  rice  and  indigo,  and  Georgia  will  sprinkle 
the  whole  composition  with  saw-dust.  Such  an  absurd 
jumble  will  you  make  if  you  attempt  to  form  a  union 
among  such  discordant  materials  as  the  thirteen  British 
provinces."'  The  ingredients  of  the  continental  dish 
were  even  more  variegated  than  the  South  Carolinian 
asserted. 

Of  the  commercial  provinces,  the  enterprising  mer- 
chants of  New  England  developed  a  network  of  trade 
routes  that  covered  well-nigh  half  the  world.  .^Possess- 
ing within  themselves  no  staple  with  which  to  make 
returns  for  their  vast  consumption  of  English  drygoods 
and  other  wares, '  the  main  resources  of  trade  of  these 
provinces  were  the  fisheries,  the  molasses-rum  trade,  the 
marketing  of  slaves  and  the  coastwise  trafficr  ,  All  these 
sources  were  vigorously  exploited  in  order  to  pile  up  a 
favorable  balance  of  specie  to  send  as  remittance  to 
England. 

^  Ramsay,  D.,  History  of  the  Revolution  of  South  Carolina  (Trenton, 
17S5),  vol.  i,  pp.  12-13. 

^  This  statement  of  New  England  conditions  is  based  largely  upon  the 
following  materials:  representation  of  R.  I.  Assembly  in  R.  L  Col. 
Recs.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  378-3S3 ;  "  Essay  on  Trade  of  Northern  Colonies,"  in 
Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  30,  Feb.  6,  1764;  Postlethwayt,  M.,  The  Universal 
Dictionary  of  Trade  and  Commerce  (London,  1751),  vol.  i.  pp.  366- 
367;  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  iii,  pp.  397-398,  570;  Com- 
merce of  Rhode  Island  {7  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vols,  ix  and  x)  ;  Weeden, 
W.  B.,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England  (Boston,  1890), 
and  Early  Rhode  Island  (New  York,  1910)  ;  statistics  of  fisheries,  /  M. 
H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  202-203;  examination  of  merchants  before 
Parliament,  4  American  Archives  (Force,  P.,  ed.),  vol.  i,  pp.  1638-1652, 
1663- I 670. 


,  THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  ^c 

/-^n  1764  forty-five  thousand  tons  of  shipping  and  up- 
wards of  three  thousand  men  were  employed  in  the  fish- 
eries. After  the  fish  had  been  caught  and  cured,  the  ' 
merchants  exported  the  "  merchantable  "  variety  to 
Spain,  Portugal  and  Italy,  where  it  was  sold  for  cash  or 
bills  of  exchange,  save  a  small  portion  which  was  ex- 
changed for  salt,  lemons  and  raisins  for  the  return 
voyage.  Such  fish  as  was  unfit  for  the  European  market 
was  exported  for  slave  consumption  in  the  West  Indies 
in  exchange  for  more  cash  and  for  molasses. 
-v,.The  circuit  of  trade  based  upon  West  Indian  molasses 
brought  even  more  generous  returns  and  indeed  consti- 
tuted the  chief  source  of  specie  supply.  The  molasses 
became  marketable  when  it  was  distilled  into  rum,  for 
throughout  British  America  it  had  great  popularity  as  a 
tipple  and  as  an  article  in  the  Indian  trade,  and  it  also 
played  an  important  part  in  the  African  trade.  Most  of 
the  output  of  rum  was  carried  by  coasting  vessels  to 
other  provinces  and  exchanged  for  products  which  might 
be  used  as  remittances  to  England  or  as  cargoes  to  the 
West  Indies.  The  remainder — about  one-seventh  in  the 
case  of  Rhode  Island — was  sent  to  Africa  where  it  was 
sold  for  slaves  or  for  gold-dust  and  ivory.  The  last  two 
articles  served  directly  as  remittances  to  England;  the 
slaves  were  sold  for  hard  money  in  the  West  Indies  and 
the  proceeds  used  to  pay  English  debts. \ 

Under  the  stimulus  of  this  ceaseless  round  of  activity, 
trading  communities  sprang  up  in  many  parts  of  New 
England,  with  Boston  and  Newport  as  the  chief  centers. 
Ship  building  leaped  into  prominence  as  a  leading  indus-J) 
try,\so<ihat  New  England  built  annually  twice  as  great 
a  tonnage  of  vessels  as  all  the  other  continental  prov- 
inceso  The  rum  industry  grew  apace,  being  represented 
in    Rhode    Island    in    1763    by    nearly    thirty   distilleries 


26  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

"  erected  at  vast  expense,"  with  hundreds  of  persons  de- 
pendent upon  them  for  subsistence,  and  in  Massachusetts 
in  1774  by  sixty  distilleries  producing  two  million  seven 
hundred  thousand  gallons  annually^)  "  In  short,"  de- 
clared Macpherson,  "  their  earnest  application  to  fisheries 
and  the  carrying  trade,  together  with  their  unremitting 
attention  to  the  most  minute  article  which  could  be 
made  to  yield  a  profit,  obtained  them  the  appellation  of 
the  Dutchmen  of  America^  Connecticut  alone  seemed 
to  stand  apart,  possessing  no  first-rate  ports,  having  re- 
sources of  grain  and  stock  more  like  the  Middle  Prov- 
inces, and  confining  its  trading  activities  chiefly  to 
coasting  voyages  and  West  Indian  trade.  Its  trans- 
Atlantic  trade  was  for  many  years  handled  through 
Boston,  but  after  the  parliamentary  act  of  1751  prohibit- 
ing the  emission  of  legal-tender  money  in  New  England, 
the  merchants  diverted  their  trade  to  New  York/ 
O^he  provinces  next  to  the  southward  had  the  advan- 
tage of  possessing  both  staples  of  export  and  a  mercan- 
tile population  equal  to  the  opportunity.!.>  The  great 
ports  of  tNew  York  and  Philadelphia  possessed  a  hinter- 
land of  large  and  small  farms  producing  a  wealth  of  grain 
and  livestock.!  ''New  York  was  the  commercial  capital 

^  Referring  to  this  dominant  position  of  New  York,  "  A  Connecticut 
Farmer  "  expressed  the  pious  wish  that  "  the  plumes  of  that  domineer- 
ing city  may  yet  feather  the  nests  of  those  whom  they  have  long 
plucked."  New  London  Gas.,  Aug.  17,  1770.  Vide  also  Conn.  Joiirn., 
Jan.  19,  1770. 

^  This  statement  of  conditions  in  the  Middle  Provinces  is  based 
largely  upon  the  following  materials :  petition  of  the  New  York  mer- 
chants to  House  of  Commons,  in  Weyler's  A'',  Y.  Gas.,  May  4,  1767; 
Tryon's  report  to  Board  of  Trade,  A*".  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  434- 
457;  Postlethwayt,  Diet,  of  Com.,  vol.  i,  p.  366;  Kalm,  P.,  Travels  into 
North  America  (Warrington  and  London,  1770-1771),  vol.  i,  pp.  31, 
49-50,  253-258;  reports  of  Gov.  Franklin,  i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  402- 
404,  442-444- 


'THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANG ETH-  2/ 

of  Connecticut  and  old  East  Jersey,  just  as  Philadelphia 
was  the  entrepot  of  West  Jersey  and  the  Delaware 
Counties.  -Less  dependent  than  New  England  on  circui- 
tous trading  for  remittances  to  England,  nevertheless 
the  West  Indian  trade  was  essential  to  the  prosperity  of 
these  provinces,  also.  The  wheat,  lumber  and  meat  of 
the  farmers  were  sent  by  the  merchants  to  the  West 
Indies,  where  they  were,  in  part,  bartered  for  sugar, 
cotton  and  indigo,  which  served  directly  as  remittances 
to  Great  Britain,  and,  in  part,  for  rum  and  molasses. l 
The  last  two  commodities  were  converted  into  cash 
through  the  triangular  trade  with  Africa  and  the  West 
Indies,  or,  by  being  exchanged  for  New  England  fish  or 
South  Carolina  rice,  served  indirectly  as  a  means  of  draw- 
ing coin  from  Spain,  Portugal  and  Italy.  (The  fur  trade 
with  the  Indians  produced  a  commodity  acceptable  to 
English  merchants,  also.  The  exportation  of  colonial 
flaxseed  to  Ireland  brought  a  favorable  balance  of  trade 
with  respect  to  that  article ;  and  the  carrying  to  Europe 
of  logwood  obtained  from  the  Bay  of  Honduras  proved 
o^nother  means  of  procuring  specie. 
^(J^hroughout  New  England  and  the  Middle  Provinces, 
the  merchants  and  their  lawyer-allies  constituted  the 
dominant  element  in  colonial  society,  an  ascendency  i,- 
shared  in  the  case  of  New  York  with  the  landed  gentry .t> 
The  chief  trading  communities  of  the  commercial  pro- 
vinces were:  Philadelphia,  which  by  1760  with  a  popu- 
lation of  almost  nineteen  thousand  had  usurped  the  place 
of  Boston  as  the  greatest  emporium  of  British  America; 
Boston,  which  ranked  second  with  more  than  fifteen 
thousand  population  ;  New  York,  a  city  somewhat  smaller 
than  Boston  but  destined  to  outstrip  her  in  a  few  years ; 
and  Newport,  the    fifth  city  on  the  continent  with  more 


'^r 


28  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  176S-1776 

than  seven  thousand  people.'  In  each  center,  wealthy 
merchant  families  had  come  into  existence.  Who  were 
better  or  more  favorably  known  than  the  Whartons, 
Pembertons,  Willings  and  Morrises  of  Philadelphia;  the 
Amorys  and  Faneuils,  the  Hancocks  and  Boylstons  of 
Boston;  the  Livingstons  and  Lows.  Crugers  and  Wal- 
tons  of  New  York  ;  the  Wantons  and  Lopezes  of  New- 
port, or  the  Browns, — "Nicky,  Josey,  John  and  Mosey, "^ 
— of  Providence  ? 

Dependent  upon  the  merchants  for  a  livelihood  were 

(great  numbers  of  petty  shopkeepers,  vendue-masters, 
ropemakers,  sailmakers,  sailors,  coopers,  caulkers,  smiths, 
carpenters  and  the  like.  These  men  "  were  that  numer- 
ous portion  of  the  community  in  republics,  styled  the 
People  ;  in  monarchies,  The  Populace,  or  still  more  irre- 
verently The  Rabble,  or  Canaille,"  as  a  contemporary 
said ;  ^  and  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  unenfranchised,, 
unorganized,  and  unaware  that  in  their  numerical  super- 
iority they  possessed  a  vast  potential  power  in  the  com- 
munity. 
Y>-  '  At  Philadelphia,  the  merchant-aristocracy  ruled  the 
city  with  a  rod  of  iron  ;  their  methods  of  harrying  the 
>(-  price-cutting  vendue-masters  and  of  discouraging  coun- 

try peddling  were  similar  in  kind  to  those  which  modern 
business  integration  has  rendered  familiar. ^  The  same 
was  true,  in  lesser  degree  perhaps,  at  New  York,  Boston 
and  Newport. 

In  their  business  activities,  the  merchants  showed  a 
capacity  for  joint  undertakings  that  revealed  their  kin- 
ship with  the  race  that  had  built  up  the  great  East  India 

^A  Century  of  Population  Grozvth  (Washington.  1909),  pp.  11-15. 
*  Graydon,  A.,  Memoirs  of  His  Own  Time  (Philadelphia,  1846),  p.  122, 
3  Lincoln.  C.  H.,  Revolutionary  Mozonent  in  Pennsylvania  (U.  of  Pa. 
Pubs,  in  Hist.,  no.  i),  pp.  80-89. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  C  HAN  GET  H  29 

Company  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  The  New 
York  company  "for  Settling  a  Fishery  in  these  parts," 
estabHshed  in  1675,  the  Free  Society  of  Traders,  a  Penn- 
sylvania corporation  founded  in  1682,  and  the  Philadelphia 
Contributionship  for  the  Insuring  of  Houses  from  Loss 
by  Fire  were  a  few  instances  of  their  aptitude  for  organiz- 
ation/ The  New-London  Society  United  for  Trade  and 
Commerce,  formed  in  1732,  was  an  example  of  a  promis- 
ing enterprise  that  was  soon  wrecked  through  the  op- 
position of  a  farmer-controlled  legislature  to  its  plan  to 
issue  bills  of  credit.^  AIercaniJ]e„prgiaiiiz^tions  some- 
times crossed  provincial  boundaries  and  it  is  not  alto- 
gether ■impfoTSable  that  the  histofilti  of  the  future  will 
cite  such  an  enterprise  as  the  spermaceti  candle  combine 
of  1 761-1769  as  revealing  an  interprovincial  solidarity  of 
interest  perhaps  as  great  as  the  more  pretentious  New 
England  Confederation  of  earlier  times. ^ 

/i^ess  intent  on  politics  than  business,  the  merchants 
a^^'-a^,  class  did  not  ordinarily  concern  themselves  with 
political  questions.  But  when  their  interests  w^ere  jeop- 
ardized, they  entered  politics  with  a  vim,  and  might  be 
expected  to  carry  things  their  own  way!|  Thus,  the 
merchants  of  Boston  contributed  powerfully  toward  de- 
feating the  land  bank  project  of  1740,  which  was  being- 
pushed  t>y  the  farmers  and  debtor  class  generally  in  the 
prcvince.'*\ 

'Baldwin,  S.  E.,  "American  Business  Corporations  before  1789," 
Am.  Hist.  Assn.  Reps.  {1902),  vol.  i,  pp.  253-274;  Clark,  V.  S.,  History 
of  Manufactures  in  United  States  (Washington,  1916),  pp.  182^185. 

-  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  v,  pp.  96-1 11 ;  vol.  vi,  pp.  6-1 1. 

^  R.  I.  Commerce,  vol.  i.  pp.  88-92,  97-100;  Mason,  G.  C,  "The 
United  Company  of  Spermaceti  Chandlers,  1761,"  Mag.  N.  Engl.  Hist., 
vol.  ii,  pp.  165-169;  Weeden,  Early  Rhode  Island,  pp.  328-329;  Hunt's 
Merchants'  Magazine,  vol.  xxxii,  pp.  386-387. 

*  Davis,  Currency  and  Banking  in  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  i,  pp.  406-412;  vol. 
ii,  pp.  130-235. 


20  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


\o  one  understood  better  than  the  merchants  that  the 

V'  rock  of  their  prosperity  was  the  maintenance  of  the 
British  empire.  ■  The  system  of  parliamentary  regulations 
had  yielded  benefits  without  great  corresponding  disad- 
vantages in  actual  practice/^.  Furthermore,  American 
commerce  had  prospered  luWer  the  protection  of  the 
British  flag  and  British  navy,'  and  colonial  merchants 
saw  their  potential  world  market  widening  with  each 
new  conquest.-f  These  were  advantages  that  the  colonial 
merchant  received  in  common  with  his  brother  at  home 
and  to  an  extent  at  the  latter's  expense^''  Of  great  im- 
portance, also,  were  the  liberal  credits  which  the  English 
merchants  extended  to  the  colonial  merchants.  The 
Americans  could  not  have  secured  such  favorable  terms 
from  foreign  houses  ;  and  without  such  indulgence  they 
would  have  found  difficulty  in  financing  their  under- 
takings.^ 

^  For  example,  there  were  the  advantages  which  came  to  American 
merchants  from  the  presents  of  Great  Britain  to  the  Barbary  States, 
amounting  to  nearly  $300,000  annually.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  War 
for  Independence,  it  was  estimated  that  one-sixth  of  the  wheat  and 
flour  exported  from  British  America,  and  one-fourth  of  the  dried  and 
pickled  fish,  and  a  quantity  of  rice,  found  their  best  market  in  the  ports 
of  the  Mediterranean.  In  this  commerce,  there  were  employed  eighty 
to  one  hundred  ships.  Moore,  J.  B.,  American  Diplomacy  (New  York, 
1905),  p.  65. 

*  The  slow  development  of  Canada  and  Grenada  before  they  came 
under  British  control  was  attributed  to  the  short  credits  granted  by  the 
merchants  in  France.  The  Int.  of  Merchants  and  Mfrs.,  pp.  32-^6. 
The  British  merchant  usually  granted  twelve  months'  credit  without 
interest  and  thereafter  made  an  annual  charge  of  5%.  Collins,  Stephen, 
Letters  (L.  C.  Mss.),  vol.  xvii,  Feb.  18,  1774;  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol. 
xxiv,  no.  2037,  pp.  11-12,  17.  As  late  as  1810,  Gallatin  spoke  of  "the 
vastly  superiour  capital  of  the  first  manufacturing  nation  of  Europe 
which  enables  her  merchants  to  give  very  long  credits,  to  sell  on  small 
profits,  and  to  make  occasional  sacrifices."  Am.  St.  Papers,  Finance, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  425-426. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH 


31 


..'This  business  entente  between  the  mother  country  and 
the  merchant  class  in  the  colonies  was  a  centripetal  force 
of  great  importance  in  the  last  century  of  colonial  histoi^, 
making  for  imperial  stability  and  union  when  other  m- 
fluences  were  tending  toward  disruption.  It  was  with  a 
fine  appreciation  of  these  impalpable,  but  sinewy,  bonds 
that  the  Committee  of  Merchants  of  Philadelphia  wrote 
to  the  Committee  of  Merchants  of  Lon(4qn  at  a  critical 
juncture  of  the  revolutionary  movement :  *'  We  consider 
the  Merchants  here  and  in  England  as  the  Links  of  the 
Chain  that  binds  both  Countries  together.  They  are 
deeply  concerned  in  preserving  the  Union  and  Connec- 
tion. Whatever  tends  to  alienate  the  Affections  of  the 
Colonies  or  to  make  them  averse  to  the  Customs,  Fash- 
ions and  Manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  hurts  their  In- 
terests. While  some,  therefore,  from  ambitious  Views 
and  sinister  Motives,  are  labouring  to  widen  the  Breach, 
we  whose  private  Interest  is  happily  connected  with  the 
Union  or,  which  is  the  same,  the  Peace  and  Prosperity 
of  both  Countries,  may  be  allowed  to  plead  for  an  End 
to  these  unhappy  Disputes  ...  by  a  Repeal  of  the  offen- 
sive Acts  .  .  ." ' 

>/On  the  other  hand,  the  merchants  were  sensitive  and 
articulate  with  regard  to  their  interests  as  members  of 
the  British  empireS.  They  were  ever  on  the  alert  to 
obtain  the  best  tepms  possible  from  the  home  govern- 
ment. Thus,  the  merchants  of  Boston  and  Portsmouth 
endeavored  in  1710  to  introduce  improvement  into  the 
administration  of  the  bounty  on  naval  stores  ; '  and  in 
1 73 1    the    Philadelphia  merchants  and  many  others  re- 

1  Letter  of  Nov.  25,  1769,  Lon.  Chron.,  Mch.  3,  1770;  also  Pa.  Gac, 
May  10. 

2  Lord,  E.,  Industrial  Experiments  in  the  British  Colonies  (J.  H.  U. 
Studies,  extra  vol.,  i8g8),  pp.  69-70. 


32  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

monstrated  against  the  passage  of  the  proposed  molasses 
act.'  They  also  knew  the  passages  to  governmental 
favor  in  Great  Britain,  as  Bellomont  testified  when  he 
wrote  in  1698  that  twenty-eight  merchants  of  New^  York 
had  contributed  one  hundred  pounds  for  use  in  obtain- 
ing  royal  approval  for  an  indemnity  bill.- 
^To  understand  rightly  the  agitation  against  Parliament 
after  1763,  it  is  important  to  note  that  a  century  of  ex- 
ceptional opportunities  had  given  to  the  colonial  mer- 
chants a  sense  of  power  in  dealing  with  Parliament^  and 
had  developed  between  the  chief  trading  towns  in  America 
/  ,  a  consciousness  of  a  fundamental  identity  of  interests. 
y^  ■  Therefore,' when  Parliament'in  1764  began  to  pass  legis- 
lation injurious  to  their  commerce,  the  merchants  of 
Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia  undertook  to  create 
a  public  opinion  favorable  to  preserving  the  conditions 
that  had  brought  them  prosperity.  Their  object  was 
reform,  not  rebellion  ?  their  motives  were  those  of  a 
group  of  loyal  subjects  in  any  country  intent  upon 
securing  remedial  legislation."^ 

The  plantation  provinces,  stretching  from  Maryland 
to  Georgia,  had  an  industrial  and  mercantile  system  in 
sharp  contrast  with  that  of  the  northern  provinces. 
Virginia  and  Maryland,  almost  from  their  first  settlement 
and  under  persistent  encouragement  by  Great  Britain, 
had  made  tobacco  their  staple;  and  it  long  continued  to 
constitute  the  most  valuable  export  not  only  of  these 

1  Channing,  E.,  History  of  United  States  (New  York,  1909  in  prog- 
ress), vol.  ii,  pp.  517-518. 

^  Later,  Bellomont  informed  the  British  authorities  that,  on  the  third 
reading  of  a  bill  before  the  New  York  Council,  a  member  declared 
that  there  would  be  £40,000  available  "  to  stop  the  King's  approbation  in 
England."  Russell,  E.  B.,  Review  of  American  Colonial  Legislation  by 
the  King  in  Council,  p.  220. 


4: 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  33 

provinces  but  of  all  the  continental  colonies  as  well.' 
The  exportation  of  tobacco  was  confined  by  law  to  Great 
Britain ;  and  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
two  hundred  sail  of  ships  were  employed  in  the  trade, 
most  of  them  owned  in  England.  Sweet-scented  tobacco 
from  the  region  of  the  York  River  w'as  highly  esteemed 
by  English  epicures,  and  thus  only  the  inferior  varieties, 
like  the  "  Oronoac,"  were  re-exported  to  Holland,  Ger- 
many and  Sweden,  ^^^  planters  invested  their  capital 
solely  in  the  growing  of  the  weed  ;  and  on  man's  weak- 
ness for  smoking  and  snuffing'  was  built  up  a  great 
agricultural  and  social  system.y>\ 

'-''in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia) almost  as  great  atten- 
tion was  devoted  to  the  culture  ol[rice,'  although  Georgia, 
as  a  newer  settlement,  was  backward  agriculturally  as 
compared  with  South  Carolina.-  Not  of  indigenous 
growth,  the  plant  nevertheless  became  the  staple  of  these 
provinces  in  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  American  rice 

*  This  statement  of  conditions  in  the  tobacco  provinces  is  based 
largely  upon  the  following  materials :  Postlethwayt,  Diet,  of  Com.,  vol. 
i.  p.  364;  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  p.  569;  Burnaby,  A., 
Travels  through  tlie  Middle  Settlements  in  North  America  (London, 
1775),  PP-  15-17,  26-30;  American  Husbandry  (London,  1775),  vol.  i,  pp. 
225-231,  237-238,  244-245 ;  report  of  Lt.  Gov.  Sharpe,  Md.  Hist.  Mag., 
vol.  ii,  pp.  354-362;  article  on  Md.  commerce  in  Pa.  Chron.,  Feb.  5,  i77o; 
Morriss,  M.  S.,  Colonial  Trade  of  Maryland,  1689-1715  (J.  H.  U. 
Studies,  vol.  xxxii,  no.  3)  ;  Bruce,  P.  A.,  Economic  History  of  Va.  in 
the  Seventeenth  Century  (New  York,  1896)  ;  report  of  Gov.  Fauquier 
of  Va.,  British  Papers  {"Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  iii,  p.  212. 

^  This  statement  of  conditions  in  the  rice  provinces  is  based  very 
largely  upon  the  following  materials :  Political  Magazine  (1780),  p.  172; 
Alacpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  570-572;  table  of  rice  and 
indigo  exports  from  Charleston,  1748-1773,  5.  C.  Gas.,  June  21,  1773; 
iMcCrady,  E.,  5".  C.  under  the  Royal  Government  (Xew  York,  1901), 
pp.  262-271,  388-398;  report  of  Gov.  Wright  of  Ga.,  Ga.  Hiist.  Soc.  Colls. ^ 
vol.  iii,  pp.  164-167;  Brit.  Mus.  Addl.  Mss.,  no.  8133B  (L.  C.  Tran- 
scripts), pp.  164-165. 


34  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

had  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  in  the  world...^  Al- 
though an  "enumerated"  article,  it  monopolized  the 
Dutch,  German  and  Portuguese  markets  and  had  gained 
a  foothold  in  Spain.  t^Near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  another  plant  was  introduced,  which  quickly 
gave  promise  of  pushing   rice   for  pre-eminence.     This 

j  was  indigo,  the  production  of  .which  was  greatly  stimu- 

)  lated  by  parliamentary  bounties^.  Though  its  exportation 

was  confined  to  the  mother  country,  many  of  the  indigo 

planters,  it  was   said,  were  able  to   double  their  capital 

every  three  or  four  years. 

^^orth  Carolina,*  by  virtue  of  her  midway  geographical 
position,  displayed  some  characteristics  of  both  adjoining 
provinces,  growing  tobacco  in   her  northerly  parts  and 

(Indigo  and  rice  in  the  southern  counties.'  Her  chief 
articles  of  export,  however,  were  the  products  and  by- 
products of  her  forested  areas — tar,  pitch,  turpentine 
and  many  varieties  of  lumber.  In  1767,  there  were  on 
the  Cape  Fear  River  and  its  tributaries  fifty  saw- mills, 
cutting  annually  a  total  of  seven  and  one-half  million 
feet  of  boards.X 

The  most  striking  feature  of  the  southern  economy 
was  thejact  that /native  capital,  in  its  larger  aspects,  was 
invested  almost  exclusively  in  plantation  production. 
Out  of  these  large  landed  estates  there  grew  up  a  great 
social  and  political  system,  with  its  aristocracy  of  birth 
and  leadership  and  its  vital  distinction  between  slave 
labor  and  gentlemanly  leisure.  Towns  in  the  plantation 
provinces  were  neither  large  nor  numerous.  Charleston, 
possessing  a  population  of  almost  eleven  thousand  in 
1770,  was  the  chief  port  of  the  South  and  the  fourth  city 
in  British  America.     Each   province   had   some   place  of 

^American  Husbandry,  vol.  i,  pp.  331-351;  report  of  Gov.  Tryon,  N. 
C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  429-430. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  35 

which  it  could  be  said  that  "trade  is  more  collected  here 
than  in  an}'-  other  place  .  .  .  "  ■/  thus,  Baltimore  in 
Maryland,  Norfolk  in  Virginia,  Wilmington  in  North 
Carolina  and  Savannah  in  Georgia.    • 

Native  Americans  did  not  ordinarily  become  merchants, 
and  commerce  was  handled  in  British  bottoms  in  one  of 
two  ways,  each  of  which  was  uneconomical  for  the 
planter.""  (The  wealthy  planter  employed  the  London  or 
Bristol  or~Tjlasgow  merchant  as  a  sort  of  commission 
merchant,  to  dispose  of  his  tobacco  or  rice  ^and  to  lay 
out  the  probable  proceeds  in  goods  of  one  kind  or  an-  X 

other,  to  be  delivered  at  the  planter's  wharf  in  the  fol- 
lowing season.  This  system  resulted  in  careless  and 
wasteful  management  on  the  part  of  the  merchant  in 
England,  high  commissions  and  freight  rates,  and 
chronic  overbuying  on  the  part  of  the  colonist.O 

For  ordinary  trading  purposes,  the  British  merchant 
maintained  an  agent  or  "factor"  in  the  colonies,  who 
kept  up  a  stock  of  merchandise  the  year  round,  worked 
up  business,  and  acted  as  financial  agent  and  confidential 
adviser  of  his  employer.  The  factors  were  almost  alto- 
gether "foreigners,"  as  the  local  vernacular  termed 
them — that  is,  natives  of  Scotland.  They  had  the  repu- 
tation of  being  shrewd,  hard  business  men,  veritable 
Shylocks  ;  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  patrons 
they  undoubtedly  were,  for  they  demanded,  from  as 
wasteful  a  race  of  gentlemen-farmers  as  ever  lived, 
punctual    payment    for   goods  sold    or    money   loaned. 3 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  2>7^-272. 

'  Bassett,  J.  S.,  "  The  Relation  between  the  Virginia  Planter  and  the 
London  Merchant,"  Am.  Hist.  Assn.  Reps,  (rgoi),  vol.  i,  pp.  551-575; 
Schaper,  W.  A.,  "Sectionalism  in  S.  C,"  ibid.  (1900),  vol.  i,  pp.  287- 
288,  297;  Sioussat,  St.  G.  L.,  "Virginia  and  the  English  Commercial 
System,"  ibid.  (1905),  vol.  i.  pp.  71-97. 

^  For  an  able  defense  of  the  Scotch  merchants,  vide  "  A  Scotchman  " 
in  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Mch.  23,  1775. 


3(y 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Here  again,  there  were  large  profits  for  the  British 
dealers  and  shipowners,  and  lavish  buying  on  the  part  of 
the  colonist. 

*The  British  capitalist  advanced  money  and  gave  gen- 
erous credit  to  the  planter,  but  this  merely  served  to 
1  complicate  matters ;  the  planter  continually  operated  on 
borrowed  capital  and^  found  his  next  crop  mortgaged 
before  it  was  planted.  '  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
centur)'-,  Colonel  Byrd  of  Virginia,  struggled  to  repay 
indebtedness  contracted  with  a  London  firm  for  the  sake 
of  enlarging  his  plantations.  In  1736,  he  was  "selling 
ofif  land  and  negroes  to  stay  the  stomach  "  of  his  hungry 
creditors ;  and  he  asserted  that  they  allowed  him  twenty- 
five  per  cent  less  for  tobacco  than  they  gave  to  other 
'     people,  knowing  that  they  had  him  for  a  customer  until 

thje  debt  was  discharged.' 
^'    -^^he  result  of  this  financial  system,  in  its  various  ram- 
ifications,  was    the    economic  bondage    of   the    planting 
class   to    the  British   merchantso^  The    planter,   Thomas 
/  Jefiferson,  declared  that  in  Virginia  "  these  debts  had  be- 
/    come  hereditary  from  father  to   son,  for  many  genera- 
I    tions,  so  that  the  planters  v^^ere  a  species  of  property, 
\  annexed    to    certain    mercantile    houses    in     London."^ 
vVhen  the  statute  of  1732  was  enacted  by  Parliament  to 
protect  the  debts  of  British  creditors  in  the  colonies,  the 
Virginia  Assembly  drew  up  a  memorial,  the  "  whole  aim 
and  intent "  of  which,  says  Professor  Sioussat,  was  "  ex- 
pressive of  a  revolt  against  the  domineering  and  '  graft- 
ing'  rule  of  the  combination  of  merchant  creditors,"  in 
its    various    manifestations,    ^rom    time    to    time,    the 

^  Bassett,  J.  S.,  Jl'^itiHgs  of  Colonel  William  Byrd  (New  York,  iQOi), 
pp.  li,  Ixxxiv. 

^Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford,  P.  L.,  ed.),  vol.  iv,  p.  155.  Vide  also  "A 
Planter  "  in  Dixon  &  Hunter's  Va.  Gaz.,  .A.pr.  13,  1774. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  C  HAN  GET  H  37 

colonists  tried  to  improve  their  situation  by  passing  lax 
bankruptcy  laws  and  other  legislation  prejudicial  to  non- 
resident creditors ;  but  their  efforts  were  usually  blocked 
by  the  royal  veto.'  Toward  the  close  of  the  colonial  era, 
their  condition  was  becoming  well-nigh  insupportable.^ 

The  situation  was  especially  acute  in  Virginia.^  v^n 
,^5:4^^  the  Virginia  Assembly  provided  that,  in  actions 
for  the  recovery  of  sterling  debts,  the  amount  adjudged 
could  be  settled  in  currency  at  twenty-five  per  cent  ad- 
vance, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  exchange  fluctuated 
and  was  at  times  as  high  as  forty  per  cent.  Seven  years 
later,  the  Assembly  was  induced  to  modify  the  law  to 
the  extent  that  the  Virginia  courts  should  be  empowered 
to  fix  the  rate  of  exchange.  This  law  was  hardly  more 
satisfactory  to  the  British  merchants  than  the  earlier  one  ; 
and  their  dissatisfaction  was  sharpened  by  the  fact  that, 
about  this  time,  Virginia  began  to  issue  legal-tender 
paper  money.  This  money  depreciated  steadily;  and,  as 
a  large  portion  of  the  debts  of  the  British  merchants  was 
in  paper,  the  action  of  Virginia  had  the  effect  of  partial 
repudiation. 

But  the  resourcefulness  of  V^irginia  was  not  yet  ex- 
hausted. ^In  1758,  a  law  was  passed,  permitting  persons, 
who  owed  tobacco  for  debts,  contracts,  fees  or  salaries, 
to  discharge  their  obligations  during  the  following  year 
in  money  at  the  rate  of  twopence  a  pound.  This  "  Two- 
Penny  Act "  was  passed  because  of  a  sharp  rise  in  the 
price  of  tobacco;  and  it  aroused  the  bitter  opposition, 

'  The  plantation  provinces  displa3-ed  much  greater  activity  along  these 
lines  than  the  commercial  provinces.  This  legislation  is  conveniently 
summarized  in  Dr.  Russell's  Review  of  American  Colonial  Legislation, 
pp.  125-136. 

^  Beer,  G.  L.,  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765  (New^  York,  I907)^ 
pp.  179-1S8. 


38 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


not  only  of  British  creditors,  but  also  of  the  Virginia 
clergy.  In  1759,  the  merchants  of  London  interested  in 
Virginia  trade  presented  a  memorial  against  the  act, 
showing  that  large  quantities  of  tobacco  were  owing  to 
them  in  Virginia,  and  thatlunder  this  law  the  debts  could 
be  commuted  in  money  at  the  rate  of  twopence  per 
pound  notwithstanding  that  at  the  time  the  market  price 
of  tobacco  was  considerably  higher.  The  act  thus  had 
the  effect  of  annulling  contracts  that  had  turned  out  un- 
favorably to  the  planters  P;3nd  in  August,  1759,  an  order 

in  council  disallowed  it,  as  well  as  others   of  a  similar 

s 

nature  enacted  prior  to  1758.  ' 

The  local  clergy  were  in  a  similar  dilemma,  since  an 
earlier  law  had  established  their  salary  at  a  fixed  quantity 
of  tobacco.  They  believed  that  they  should  reap  the 
benefit  of  any  advance  in  the  price  inasmuch  as  they  had 
always  suffered  by  its  decline.  One  of  the  suits,  brought 
by  the  *'  parsons"  to  recover  the  full  market  price  of  the 
tobacco,  gave  opportunity  for  the  first  grandiose  decla- 
ration of  the  rights  of  the  colonists  in  the  matter.  The 
question  of  justice  had  already  been  decided  in  favor  of 
the  "  parson  "-plaintiff ,  when  young  Patrick  Henry  was 
called  in  by  the  vestry  to  exhort  the  jury  to  scale  down 
the  amount  of  the  verdict  which  should  be  assessed. 
Arguing  vigorously  for  the  natural  right  of  the  com- 
munity to  govern  for  itself  in  the  matter,  he  persuaded 
the  jury  to  award  nominal  damages  of  one  penny.' 
4  The  peculiar  economic  situation  in  the  plantation 
provinces  shaped  the  developments  of  the  decade  1764- 
'^,  1774  in  fundamental  contrast  with  those  of  the  commer- 

cial provinces.   •  Whereas,  in  the  latter,  financial  power 

*  Henry,  W.  W.,  Patrick  Henry  (New  York,  1891),  vol.  i,  pp.  30-46; 
Maury,  A.,  Memoirs  of  a  Huguenot  Family  (New  York,  1872),  pp. 
418-423. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  30 

and  golitical  power  were  vested  in  the  hands  of  the  same 
class  in  the  early  years  of  the  decade,  in  the  plantation 
provinces  financial  control  and  political  leadership  be- 
longed to  two  classes,  dissimilar  in  nativity,  social  man-; 
ners  and  political  sympathy.  The  important  result  was/ 
that  when  the  new  policy  of  Parliament  adopted  in  1764  j 
threatened  to  infiict  serious  injury  on  the  merchants  of  •  I 
the  North,  the  planters  of  the  South  felt  an  instinctive  ' 
afifinity  for  their  oppressed  brethren  and  were  moved  to 
join  them  in  their  demands  for  remedial  legislation  and 
a  larger  measure  of  colonial  autonomy".;^01iver  Wolcott 
went  so  far  in  later  years  as  to  say  with  reference  to 
the  chief  plantation  province :  "  It  is  a  firmly  established 
opinion  of  men  well  versed  in  the  history  of  our  revolu- 
tion, that  the  whiggism  of  Virginia  was  chiefly  owing  to 
the  debts  of  the  planters."^ 

Thus  far  it  has  not  been  necessary  to  distinguish  be- 
tween legal  commerce  and  illicit  commerce,  for  the  reason     / 
that  the  mother  country  failed  to  draw  sharply  the  dis- 
tinction until  the  closing  years  of  the  colonial  era."*     The 

*  British  Iniiuence  on  the  Affairs  of  the  United  States  Proved  and 
Explained  (Boston,  1804),  quoted  by  Beard,  C.  A.,  Economic  Origins 
of  Jeffcrsonian  Democracy  (New  York,  1915),  pp.  297-298.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  the  question  of  payment  of  the  pre-Revolutionary  private 
debts  toi  British  merchants  occupied  the  attention  of  the  British  and 
American  governments  in  the  treaties  of  1783  and  1794  and  in  the  con- 
vention of  1802.  .  The  claims  presented  against  the  commercial  prov- 
inces amounted  to  £218,000;  those  against  the  plantation  provinces,  ^ 
£3,869,000.  The  former  figure  consisted,  in  large  part,  of  claims  on 
behalf  of  American  loyalists  for  compensation,  while  this  was  not  true 
in  the  latter  case.\  Ibid. 

'  This  summary' of  smuggling  is  based  largely  upon  the  following 
materials:  Postlethwayt,  M.,  Great  Britain's  Commercial  Interest  Ex- 
plained and  Improved  (London,  1759),  vol.  i,  pp.  485-498;  "An  Essay 
on  the  Trade  of  the  Northern  Colonies."  Prov.  Gaz.,  Jan.  14,  21,  1764; 
report  of  commissioners  of  the  customs,   Brit.  Mus.  Addl.  Mss.,  no. 


40 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


business  of  smuggling  was  made  easy  and  attractive  by 
several  favoring  circumstances — ^^he  extensive  and  irreg- 
ular coastline,  the  distance  of  the  colonies  from  England, 
the  inefficient  system  of  administration,  and,  it  must  be 
said,  the  practice  of  custom-house  officials  "of  shutting 
their  eyes  or  at  least  of  opening  them  no  further  than 
their  own  private  interest  required." 'yiS.muggling  was 
almost  exclusively  a  practice  of  merchants  of  the  com- 
mercial provincesly  "  The  Saints  of  New  England,"  wrote 
Colonel  Byrd  of  Virginia  acridly,  ".  .  .  have  a  great 
dexterity  at  palliating  a  perjury  so  well  as  to  leave  no 

8133c  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  ff.  85-86;  Hutchinson,  History  of  Mass.  Bay, 
vol.  iii,  pp.  160-163;  and  other  sources  noted  from  time  to  time.  The 
conclusions  presented  do  not  differ  materially  from  those  given  in : 
Andrews,  C.  M.,  "  Colonial  Commerce,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  xx,  pp. 
61-62;  Ashley,  W.  J.,  "American  Smuggling,  1660-1760,"  Surveys  His- 
toric and  Economic,  pp.  336-260;  Beer,  G.  L.,  British  Colonial  Policy, 
1754-1765,  pp.  235-246,  and  Commercial  Policy  of  England,  pp.  130-143; 
McClellan,  W.  S.,  Smuggling  in  the  American  Colonies  (New  York, 
1912),  chap,  iii;  Root,  W.  T.,  Relations  of  Pennsylvania  with  the  Brit- 
ish Government  (New  York,  1912),  pp.  61-76.  As  to  the  quantity  of 
illicit  trade,  every  student  will  agree  with  Professor  Andrews  that  "  it 
is  doubtful  if  satisfactory  conclusions  can  ever  be  reached  .  .  .  owing 
both  to  the  lack  of  evidence  and  to  its  unsatisfactory  ciiaracter." 

^  "  Essay  on  Trade  of  Northern  Colonies,"  Prov.  Gas.,  Jan.  14,  21, 
1764.  Surveyor  General  Temple  accused  Governor  Bernard  of  sharing 
in  such  illegal  gain.  Quincy,  S.  L.,  Mass.  Reports,  1761-1772,  pp.  423- 
424.  Hutchinson  wrote  on  Sept.  17,  1763 :  "  The  real  cause  of  the 
illicit  trade  in  this  province  has  been  the  indulgence  of  the  officers  of 
the  customs,  and  we  are  told  that  .  .  .  without  bribery  and  corruption 
they  must  starve."  Ihid.,  p.  430.  On  Feb.  8,  1764,  Governor  Franklin 
of  New  Jersey  reported  to  the  Board'  of  Trade  that  the  custom-house 
officers  entered  "  into  a  Composition  with  the  Merchants  and  took  a 
Dollar  a  Hogshead,  or  some  such  small  matter,  in  Lieu  of  the  Duties 
imposed  by  Act  of  Parliament,"  and  he  had  no  knowledge  that  they 
ever  remitted  the  "Composition  Money"  to  England,  i  N.  J.  Arch., 
vol.  ix,  pp.  403-404.  It  should  be  noted  that  by  law  the  collectors  had  a 
discretionary  power  to  accept  partial  payment  of  duties  as  full  payment 
(13  and  14  Charles  H,  c.  li). 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  41 

taste  of  it  in  the  mouth,  nor  can  any  people  Hke  them 
sHp  through  a  penal  statute."  ' 

<:^or  the  most  part,  colonial  smuggling  took  two 
forms. ^  First,  there  was  a  direct  traffic,  back  and  forth 
across  the  Atlantic,  between  the  British  provinces  and 
foreign  countries.  The  outgoing  commerce  was  likely 
to  infringe  the  regulation  which  confined  certain  colonial 
exports  to  Great  Britain  alone ;  and  the  incoming  trade 
unavoidably  violated  the  requirement  that  practically  all 
products  of  Europe  and  Asia  should  reach  the  colonies 
via  England.'~4[rhe  illicit  traffic  in  colonial  exports  was 
apparently  very  small.,!. Of  much  larger  proportions  was 
the  clandestine  importation  of  foreign  commodities  and 
manufactures,  although  its  relation  to  the  total  volume 
of  legitimate  trade  was  not  important,!  Colonial  mer- 
chants carrying  legal  cargoes  to  Hollan'd,  Hamburg  and 
France  sometimes  returned  with  dn^oods,  tea,  wines 
and  gunpowder,  which  they  had  not  troubled  to  enter  at 
a  British  port.^  Or  these  wares  found  a  more  circuitous 
entrance  into  the  colonies  by  w^ay  of  the  foreign  islands 
in  the  West  Indies.  Or  New  England  merchants,  hav- 
ing disposed  of  their  fish  in  Portugal,  Spain  or  Italy  and 
having,  in  accordance  with  the  law,  loaded  all  the  salt 
they  wished,  completed  their  cargoes  with  fruit,  oil  and 

^  Letter  of  July  12,  1736,  Am.  Hist.  Rez\,  vol.  i,  p.  88. 

*  One  form  of  smuggling  disappeared  after  the  seventeenth  century 
and  is  not  discussed  here.  This  was  the  direct  exportation  of  colonial 
tobacco  to  Scotland.  The  illegal  character  of  this  traffic  was  removed 
when  the  acts  of  trade  were  extended  to  Scotland  in  1708.  ]\Iorriss, 
Colonial  Trade  of  Maryland,  pp.  1 16-120. 

*  £.  g.,  vide  reports  of  Lt.  Gov.  Golden  of  New  York,  Golden,  Letter 
Books,  ijGo-i^ys  (N.  Y.  Hist.  Sac.  Colls.,  vols,  ix  and  x),  vol.  i,  pp. 
257-259,  375-376;  letter  of  William  Bollan,  Feb.  26,  1742,  Col.  Soc.  Mass. 
Pubs.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  299-304.  The  letter  of  an  Amsterdam  commission 
house  to  a  Rhode  Island  merchant,  dated  Jan.  31,  1764,  is  interesting 
first-hand  e\'idence  on  this  point.    R.  L  Commerce,  vol.  i,  pp.  105-106. 


r 


\ 


y 


42 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


^ 


wine,  and  made  straightway  for  America.  Governor 
Bernard  of  Massachusetts  spoke  of  "an  Indulgence  time 
out  of  mind  allowed  in  a  trifling  but  necessary  article, 
.  .  .  the  permitting  Lisbon  Lemons  &  wine  in  small 
quantities  to  pass  as  Ships  Stores  " ;'  and,  acting  upon 
the  same  understanding,  Peyton  Randolph,  attorney 
general  of  Virginia,  drew  upon  himself  the  withering 
wrath  of  Governor  Dinwiddie,  for  dismissing  a  case  in- 
volving this  breach — "  inconsistant  with  Justice,  the 
Sense  and  Spirit  of  the  Laws  that  were  produc'd  on  the 
Try^l,"  as  Dinwiddie  declared.' 
^f  jBy  far  the  greatest  mass  of  contraband  trade  consisted 
in  the  importation  of  undutied  molasses,  sugar  and  rum 
from  the  foreign  West  Indies,  particularly  molasses. 
The  heavy  restrictions  of  1733  had  been  imposed  regard- 
less of  the  protests  of  colonial  merchants,  the  avowed 
purpose  of  Parliament  being  to  give  to  the  British 
planters  in  the  West  Indies  a  monopoly  of  marketing 
their  molasses  in  the  commercial  provincesy^  The  act 
had  been  passed  at  the  behest  of  the  "  West  India  in- 
terest"  in  Parliament; 3  and  to  colonial  merchants,  it 
appeared  a  sinister  piece  of  exploitation  intended  to  en- 
able "  a  few  pamper'd  Creolians  "  to  "  roll  in  their  gilded 

*  He  added :  "  I  have  always  understood  that  this  was  well  known  in 
England, — allowed,  as  being  no  object  of  trade,  or  if  it  was,  no  way 
injurious  to  that  of  Great  Britain."  Quincy,  op.  git.,  pp.  430-431.  Vide 
also  article  in  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  2,  1764.  S.  Toovey,  clerk  to  the 
customs  collector  at  Salem,  described,  in  convincing  detail,  how  the 
customs  entries  were  manipulated  for  this  purpose,  in  a  deposition  of 
Sept.  27,  1764.    Bos.  Gac,  June  12,  1769. 

*  Official  Records  of  Robert  Dinwiddie  (Richmond,  1884),  vol.  ii,  pp. 
679-681.  Gov.  Fauquier  of  Virginia  reported  on  Nov.  20,  1764,  that 
ships  returning  from  Lisbon  generally  brought  a  small  quantity  of 
fruit  and  sometimes  wine.    Brit.  Papers  {"Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  ii,  p.  43. 

'  About  forty  members  were  usually  so  classified.  Bos.  Eve,  Post, 
Nov.  21,  1763;  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Aug.  4,  1766. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  43 

equipages  thro'  the  streets"  of  London,  at  the  expense 
of  two  million  American  subjects.' 

/lL,any  serious  attempt  had  been  made  to  enforce  the 
statute,  the  prosperity  of  the  commercial  provinces 
would  have  been  laid  prostrate.  It  was  the  West  India 
trade,  more  than  anything  else,  which  had  enabled  them 
to  utilize  their  fisheries,  forests  and  fertile  soil,  to  build 
up  their  towns  and  cities,  to  supply  cargoes  for  their 
merchant  marine,  and  to  liquidate  their  indebtedness  to 
British  merchants  and  manufacturers.  The  entire  mo- 
lasses output  of  the  British  islands  did  not  equal  two- 
thirds  of  the  quantity  imported  into  Rhode  Island  alone, 
and  was  estimated  to  amount  to  only  about  one-eighth 
of  the  quantity  consumed  annually  by  all  the  provinces.f  ] 
Moreover,  the  prices  of  the  British  planters  were  twenty- 
five  to  forty  per  cent  higher  than  those  asked  at  the 
foreign  islands;  and  the  foreign  planters  were  willing  to 
transact  business  on  a  cash  basis. ^  .That  smuggling  with 
the  foreign  islands  was  extensive  and  important,  the 
evidence  is  plentiful  and  uncontradicted.  It  is  to  be,; 
found  in  such  a  variety  of  sources  as  letters  of  colonial 

'  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  July  8,  1765,  quoting  an  article  by  "  Anti-Smuggler  " 
in  the  London  Public  Ledger.  Vide  also  ibid.,  Jan.  2,  1764.  For  the 
best  explanation  of  the  motives  of  Parliament  in  passing  this  law,  vide 
Andrews,  C.  M.,  "Anglo-French  Commercial  Rivalry,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev., 
vol.  XX,  pp.  761-780. 

'  Of  the  14,000  hogsheads  of  molasses  imported  into  Rhode  Island 
each  year,  11,500  hogsheads  came  from  the  foreign  West  Indies,  pay- 
ing no  duty.  Representation  of  R.  I.  Assembly,  in  R.  /.  Col.  Recs.,  vol. 
vi,  pp.  378-383.  Of  the  15,000  hogsheads  imported  into  Massachusetts 
in  1763,  all  but  500  came  from  the  foreign  islands.  Bernard,  F.,  Letters 
on  Trade ^  p.  7 ;  evidence  of  William  Kelly  before  a  committee  of  Par- 
liament, Brit.  Mus.  Addl.  Mss.,  no.  33030  (L.  C.  Transcripts),   f.  135 

'  Postlethwayt,  Great  Britain's  Interest,  etc.,  vol.  i,  p.  494;  letter  from 
New  York  in  London  Chronicle,  Oct.  2,  1764.  There  were  also  heavy 
duties  levied  on  the  products  of  the  British  sugar  plantations  at  expor- 
tation.   Channing,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  511. 


J 


y 


44  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

governors  and  customs  officials,  newspaper  articles  and 
merchants'  letter  books,  instructions  to  governors,  and 
th^  writings  of  economists/ 
.   /  Although  of  decided  economic  advantage  to  the  com- 
f/mercial  provinces, >the  non-enforcement  of  the  Molasses 
Act  proved  a  serious  political  blunder  for  the  home  gov- 
ernment.    As  British  statesmanship  should  have  foreseen, 
it  gav.e  to  colonial  smuggling  every  aspect  of  respecta- 
bility. )<  Numbers  have  become  "'  reconciled   to  it  by  ex- 
ample,   habit,    and    custom,"    declared    a   contemporary 
observer,  "  and  have  gradually  consented  to  amuse  them- 
selves with  some  very  superficial  arguments  in  its  favour, 
such  as,  that  every  man  has  a  natural  right  to  exchange 
his  property  with  whom  he  pleases,  and  where  he   can 
make  the  most  advantage  of  it ;  that  there  is  no  injustice 
in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  being  no  otherwise  unlawful 
than  as  the  partial   restrictions  of  power  have  made  it; 
arguments  which  may  be  .   .   .  adopted    in   extenuation 
of  many  other  disorderly  and  pernicious  practices."^ 
"There  is  no  error  in  a  commercial  nation  so  fruitful 
I  of  mischief,"  was  the  keen  observation  of  another  writer, 
f  "  as  making  acts  and  regulations  oppressive  to  trade  [with- 
out enforcing  them].     This  opens  a  door  to  corruption. 
This  introduces  a  looseness  in  morals.     This  destroys  the 

^  E.  g.,  the  commissioners  of  the  customs  in  England  reported  on 
Sept.  i6,  1763,  that  "it  appears  to  Us,  from  the  Smallness  of  the  Sum 
Collected  from  these  Duties  and  from  other  Evidence,  that  they  have 
been  for  the  most  part,  either  wholly  evaded  or  Fraudulently  Com- 
pounded .  .  ."  Brit.  Mus.  Addl.  Mss.,  no.  8133c  (L.  C.  Transcripts) . 
A  writer  in  the  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Nov.  21,  1763,  voiced  the  current  colo- 
nial opinion  when  he  averred:  "The  sugar  act  has  from  its  first  pub- 
lication been  adjudged  so  unnatural  that  hardly  any  attempts  have  been 
made  to  carry  it  into  execution." 

*"A  Tradesman  of  Philadelphia"  in  Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  17,  1774.  Cf. 
Bollan's  letter,  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  vi,  p.  300. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH 


45 


reverence  and  regard  for  oaths,  on  which  government  so 
much  depends.  This  occasions  a  disregard  to  those^acts 
of  trade  which  are  calculated  for  its  real  benefit,  ■^his 
entirely  destroys  the  distinction  which  ought  invariably 
to  be  preserved  in  all  trading  communities  between  a 
merchant  and  a  smuggler.  But  the  sugar  act  has  thrown 
down  all  distinction  :  Before  this  was  published,  a  mer- 
chant disdain'd  to  associate  with  the  unfair  trader. "\ 
The  truth  was  that  the  income  of  many  wealthy  families 
in  the  North — yea^the  prosperity  of  whole  provinces — 
depended  upon  a  trade  which  was  approved  by  a  robust 
\  public  opinion  but  forbidden  by  parliamentary  statute. 
The  "Smuggling  Interest"  became  a  factor  of  great 
potential  stren^h  in  public  affairs  in  the  trading  towns 
of  the  North.^^J 

Colonial  smugglers  felt  the  first  impact  of  an  opposing 
imperial  interest  during  the  last  intercolonial  vvar,  y 
when,  covetous  of  large  profits,  they  supplied  the  French 
belligerents  in  America  with  foodstujTs,  whereby  they 
were  enabled  to  prolong  the  war.^  <^[n  defiance  of  pa- 
triotic duty,  acts  of  Parliament,  and  the  efforts  of  the 
British  and  provincial  administrations,  not  only  was  the 
old  illicit  intercourse  with  the  French  continued  but 
many  new  routes  were  opened  upV  The  early  efforts  of 
the  British  government  to  suppress  the  traffic  resulted 
in  more  than  doubling  the  average  annual  revenue  from 
the  Molasses  Act  during  the  war,  at    a  time,  however. 


\,  ^ 


>€ 


^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Nov.  21,  1763. 

*  Vide  the  important  letters  of  Richard  Oswald  to  Lord  Dartmouth 
in  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol.  xxiv,  nos.  2032,  2034,  2037;  Sagittarius' s 
Letters  and  Political  Speculations  (Boston,  1775),  nos.  i  and  iii,  passim. 

^  The  present  account  is  based  largely  upon  the  excellent  treatment 
in  Beer,  Brit.  Col.  Policy,  1754-1765,  pp.  72-131,  and  Root,  Rels.  of  Pa. 
with  Brit.  Govt.,  pp.  76-84. 


46  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

when  the  vohime  of  smuggHng  had  probably  trebled  or 
quadrupled/  ffn  1760  and  1761,  a  vigorous  employment 
of  the  navy  resulted  in  disturbing  the  centers  of  smug- 
gling in  the  Vvlest  Indies  and  in  further  disminishing  its 
volume. 

The  experience  of  the  British  government  during  the 
war  sharply  revealed  the  strength,  sordidness  and  energy 
of  the  forces  supporting  the  contraband  trade^v^Prov- 
incial  governors  had  been  bought  out  by  the  smugglers 
in  one  or  two  instances ;  and  from  Massachusetts  to 
South  Carolina,  the  Americans  managed  pretty  success- 
fully to  control  the  vice-admiralty  courts  in  their  favop" 
Governor  Hamilton,  of  Pennsylvania,  reported  in  1760 
that  the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  that  province  were  re- 
tained by  the  smugglers.  In  New  York,  Lieutenant 
Governor  Golden  complained  in  1762  that  his  efforts 
against  illicit  trade  had  failed  of  the  desired  effect  be- 
cause the  enforcement  of  the  law  rested  largely  with 
persons  who  had  connections  with  smugglers  or  who 
feared  their  resentment.''  A  prominent  Rhode  Island 
lawyer  averred  that  the  courts  of  vice-admiralty  had  be- 
come "  subject  to  mercantile  influence;  and  the  king's 
revenue  sacrificed  to  the  venality  and  perfidiousness  of 
courts  and  officers."  ^y 

In  Massachusetts, 'the  smuggling  merchants  struggled 

^  The  extent  of  this  partial  enforcement  is  indicated  by  the  aggregate 
amount  of  the  revenue  derived  from  the  Molasses  Act.  The  total 
duties  paid  om  molasses  from  1734  to  the  close  of  1755  amounted  to 
£5,686,  or  a  yearly  average  of  £259.  In  the  seven  j^ears,  1756-1762, 
^4.375  was  collected,  the  yearly  average  being  £625.  For  the  years  1760 
and  1761  the  amounts  were  £1,170  and  £1,189.  Beer,  op.  cit.,  pp.  115- 
116  and  f.  n. 

^Letter  Books,  vol.  i,  pp.  195-196. 

^  Howard,  M.,  A  Letter  from  a  Gentleman  at  Halifax  to  his  Friend 
in  Rhode  Island  (Newport,  1765). 


THE  OLD  ORDER  C  HAN  GET  H  47 

hard  to  impair  the  efficiency  of  the  customs  collection 
by  instituting  damage  suits  against  customs  officials  in 
unfriendly  common-law  courts.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
war,  the  services  of  James-  Otis,  recently  prosecuting 
officer  for  the  local  vice-admiralty  court  and  the  most 
eloquent  lawyer  of  the  province,  were  retained  by  the 
merchants  of  Boston  and  Salem,  in  ^n  attack  onjhe  leg- 
ality of  the_j;^eneraLiearclLJ^>;arra^^  of  assist- 
ance," which  had  proved  an  effective  means  of  locating 
contraband_  goods^^  Like  Henry  in  Virginia,  Otis  made 
a  perfervid  plea  for  the  "  inherent,  inalienable,  and  inde- 
feasible "  rights  of  the  colonists  and  particularly  for  the 
privacy  of  one's  home  and  warehouses  from  prying 
customs  officers  acting  under  general  search  warrants.' 
But  he  lost  his  case\  This  failure  led  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court  to  pass  an  act,  which,  if  Governor  Bernard 
had  not  vetoed  it,  would  have  drawn  the  teeth  from  the 
writs.  This  bill,  the  governor  assured  the  Board  of 
Trade,  was  "  the  last  effort  of  the  confederacy  against 
the  custom-house  and  Laws  of  Trade. "=* 

■frhe  suppression  of  smuggling  had  been  originally 
undertaken  by  the  British  government  as  a  war  measure  ; 
but  before  the  war  had  terminated,  it  became  apparent  / 
that  a  strict  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  trade  was  to  be  a 
permanent  peace  policy./  Pitt's  circular  dispatch  of 
August  23,  1760  marked  the  transition  ;3  the  year  1763 
brought  a  succession  of  unqualified  steps  in  this  direc- 
tion.    An  act  of  Parliament  of  that  year  authorized  the 

'  For  a  bibliography  of  Otis's  speech,  vide  Green,  S.  A.,  2  M.  H.  S. 
Procs.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  190-196. 

*  Palfrey,  J.    G.,    Compendious   History   of  New   England    (Boston, 
1884),  vol.  iv,  p.  313. 

*  Text  in  Quincy,  Mass.  Reports,  p.  407. 


48 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


use  of  the  navy  against  smuggling  in  the  colonies/  The 
vicious  practice  of  absenteeism  in  the  customs  service 
was  terminated  :  all  colonial  customs  officials  residing  in 
England  were  ordered  to  repair  to  their  stations  in 
America.^  In  July,  special  instructions  were  sent  to 
colonial  governors  and  naval  com.manders  to  suppress 
illicit  trade,  especially  the  clandestine  traffic  carried  on 
directly  with  continental  Europe. ^  In  the  last  days  of 
^he  year,  strict  orders  were  issued  from  all  the  custom 
houses  in  the  northern  district,  requiring  masters  of 
vessels  to  conform  to  the  old  Molasses  Act  "  in  all  its 
parts."  "^  Early  in  1764,  American  newspapers  recorded 
the  arrival  of  warships  at  various  ports.  The  frequency 
of  seizures  increased. ^ 

The  publication  of  the  orders  to  enforce  the  Molasses 
/^  Act  "  caused  a  greater  alarm  in  this  country  than  the 
taking  of  Fort  William  Henry  did  in  1757,"  declared 
Governor  Bernard,  of  Massachusetts.^  He  reported  that 
/it  was  common  talk  among  Boston  merchants  that  the 
trade  of  the  province  was  at  an  end,  "  sacrificed  to  the 
West  Indian  Planters,"  and  that  every  prudent  man 
should    resort    to    farming   and    homespun.   ^Lieutenant 

^3  George  III,  c.  22. 

'  Kimball,  G.  S.,  ed.,  Correspondence  of  the  Colonial  Governors  of 
Rhode  Island,  1723-1775  (Boston,  1902),  vol.  ii,  p.  355. 

^}.Id.  Arch.,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  102-103;  Prov.  Gas.,  Sept.  24,  1763,  also 
Mass.  Gas.  and  News-Letter,  Sept.  29. 

■•  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Jan.  2  and  9,  1764,  contained  such  orders,  under 
date  of  Dec.  26,  1763,  from  the  custom  houses  of  the  ports  of  Boston, 
Salem,  Piscataqua  and  Falmouth ;  Newport ;  New  London  and  New 
Haven ;  New  York ;  Perth  Amboy,  Burlington  and  Salem,  N.  J. 

^  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  pp.  160-163. 

®  Bernard,  Letters,  p.  9.  Commenting  on  this  comparison,  John 
Adams  declared  in  1818 :  "  This  I  fully  believe  and  certainly  know  to 
be  true;  for  I  was  an  eye  and  an  ear  witness  to  both  of  these  alarms." 
Works  (Adams,  C.  F.,  ed.),  vol.  x,  p.  345. 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  49 

Governor  Golden  at  New  York  warned  the  Board  of 
Trade  that  the  stoppage  of  trade  with  the  foreign  West 
Indies  would  reduce  importations  from  England  and 
force  the  people  to  do  their  own  manufacturing.  ?  The 
legislature  of  that  province  granted  a  bounty  on  hemp, 
with  the  hope  of  providing  a  staple  commodity  for  ex- 
port to  England  in  place  of  commodities  from  the  foreign 
West  Indies.'  Governor  Franklin,  of  New  Jersey,  in- 
formed the  Board  of  Trade  :  "  At  present  there  are  great 
Murmurings  among  the  Merchants,  and  others,  in  North- 
America,  on  account  of  the  Stop  put  to"  the  trade  v/ith 
the  foreign  West  Indies.^  "Trade  [is]  very  dull,"  wrote 
a  smuggling  merchant  of  Philadelphia  as  early  as  Nov- 
ember 12,  1763,  after  noting  the  presence  of  two  men-of- 
war  in  the  river.  "  I  suppose  the  number  of  Vessells 
in  this  harbour,  at  this  time,  exceeds  any  that  ever  was 
Knowne  here  &  people  not  knowing  what  to  do  with 
them."  At  various  times  in  the  next  twelvemonth  he 
lamented  the  great  scarcity  of  cash  and  the  vigilance  of 
the  warships.  They  "  are  so  very  strict  that  the  smallest 
things  don't  escape  their  notice,"  he  complained. ^  <^h€re 
was,  beyond  question,  a  gloomy  prospect  ahead  for  the 

V 


smuggling  merchantsV^ 


^Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  i,  pp.  312-313;  Weyler's  A'".  Y.  Gas.,  Apr. 
2,  1764.  "  The  intercourse  between  the  Dutch  &c,  &  the  Colonies  (I 
mean  Dry  Goods  everywhere)  ought  to  be  entirely  suppress'd,  but  the 
rigorous  execution  of  the  Sugar  [Act]  is  injurious,"  wrote  Jonathan 
Watts,  a  member  of  the  New  York  council.  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  x, 
p.  507. 

*  /  N'.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  ix,  p.  404. 

*"  Extracts  from  the  Letter-Book  of  Benjamin  Marshall,  1763-1766," 
Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xx,  pp.  204-212. 


■i- 


CHAPTER  II 

The  First  Contest  for  Commercial  Reform 
(1764- 1 766) 

Events  were  shaping  themselves  in  England  to  accen- 
tuate the  economic  distress  which  the  commercial  provinces 
had  already  begun  to  feel.  The  Peace  of  Paris  of  1763 
marked  a  turning  point  in  the  relations  of  Great  Britain 
to  her  colonies.  xThe  mother  country  faced  the  complex 
task  of  recasting  her  imperial  policy,  of  safeguarding  her 
newly-acquired  world  empire,  of  readjusting  the  acts  of 
trade  to  meet  the  new  situation  and  of  improving  their  ad- 
ministration.^ The  particularistic  course  of  the  colonial 
legislatures  during  the  recent  war  had  shown  that  the  re- 
quisition system  could  not  be  depended  upon  to  furnish  a 
permanent  revenue  for  a  colonial  military  establishment; 
and  the  lawlessness  of  the  colonial  merchants  had  revealed 
the  need  for  reforming  the  machinery  of  administering  the 
trade  laws.  J>  Forced  to  action  J2y  these  conditions,  Parlia- 
ment, under  the  leadership  of  .George  Grenville,  proceeded 
to  adopt  an  imperial  policy  which  in  its  main  principles 
conformed  to  the  views  long  maintained  by  the  British  mer- 
cantile interests  and  their  apologist,  the  Board  of  Trade. 
j^Tn  the  light  of  subsequent  history,  the  most  important 

1  "  The  several  changes  of  territories,  which  at  the  last  Peace  took 
place  in  the  Colonies  of  the  European  world,  have  given  rise  to  A 
New  System  of  Interests;  have  opened  a  new  channel  of  business; 
and  brought  into  operation  a  new  concatenation  of  powers,  both  com- 
mercial and  political."  Pownall,  T.,  The  Administration  of  the  British 
Colonies  (London,  1768),  vol.  i,  p.  i. 
SO 


> 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  5 1 

feature  of  the  legislation  of  1764  was  the  fact  that,  for  the 
first  time,  Parliament  provided  specifically  for  the  raising  V^ 

of  a  revenue  in  America.  >But  as  watchful  colonists  at  the 
time  viewed  the  unwonted  legislative  activity,  they  were  im-  ^ . 

pressed  almost  solely  with  the  idea  that  their  business  inter-  » 
ests  were  being  vitally  affected.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
they  did  not  perceive  or  appreciate  the  problem  of  imperial 
reorganization  with  which  Parliament  was  wrestling.  They 
stood  for  a  Ptolemaic  conception  of  the  empire,  with  Eng- 
land as  the  sun  and  America  the  earth  about  which  the  sun 
revolved;  while  the  statesmen  at  home  justified  their  course 
in  the  terms  of  the  Copernican  theory.^ 

The  program  of  Parliament,  therefore,  so  far  as  the 
colonists  were  concerned,  had  to  stand  or  fall  upon  its  merits 
as  legislation  dealing  solely  with  colonial  interests.  The 
group  of  enactments  thus  readily  divided  itself  into  two 
parts,  tliQse  provisions,, Javprable  to  Arnerican^  commerce 
and  industry,  and_  those  detrimental. 

The  beneficial  portions  were  of  minor  importance  and 
affected  chiefly  the  plantation  provinces  where  relief  was. 
not  particularly  needed.  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  were 
allowed,  upon  payment  of  a  slight  duty,  to  export  rice  to 
any  part  of  America  to  the  southward  of  those  provinces, 
in  order  that  they  might  continue  to  dominate  the  markets 
which  they  had  entered  during  British  occupation  of  certain 
West  India  islands  in  the  recent  war.^  As  a  means  of  en- 
couraging the  indigo  industry,  a  protective  duty  was  placed 

*  Vide  Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-J765,  pp.  193-251,  274-286, 
for  an  excellent  presentation  of  the  imperialistic  point  of  view.  P'ide 
Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  iii,  pp.  395-399.  for  a  well- 
balanced  statement  of  the  colonial  view;  also  Col.  Sac.  Mass.  Pubs., 
vol.  xiii,  pp.  431-433- 

*  4  George  III,  c.  27.  This  liberty  was  extended  to  North  Carolina; 
in  the  following  year.     5  George  III,  c.  45. 


-.2 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


on  foreign  indigo  imported  into  the  provinces/  On  the 
other  hand,  New  England  fishermen  received  concessions  in 
England,  by  which  American  whale-fins  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing a  practical  monopoly  of  the  home  market;'  and  colonial 
rum  distillers  were  favored  by  an  absolute  prohibition  of 
the^ introduction  of  foreign  rum." 

/The  detrimental  features  of  the  acts  were  far-reachmg 
and  fundamental  in  their  influence  upon  American  pros- 
perity.* l)  Resolute  measures  were  taken  against  smuggling. 
Customs  officials  were  granted  ampler  authority,  and  the 
powers  of  the  admiralty  courts  were  enlarged.  In  order 
to  protect  customs  officials  from  damage  suits  in  common 
law  courts,  it  was  provided  that,  in  cases  where  the  court 
held  there  had  been  a  probable  cause  for  making  a  seizure, 
the  officers  should  not  be  liable  for  damages.  In  addition, 
the  burden  of  proof  was  placed  on  the  owner  of  the  seized 
goods  or  vessel ;  and  all  claimants  of  such  goods  had  to 
deposit  security  to  cover  the  costs  of  the  suit.  ' '  Stricter 
r£gistration  of  vessels  wasj-equired.  Because  of  the  amen- 
ability of  vice-admiralty  courts  to  local  opinion  in  the  vari- 
ous provinces,'  a^  vice^admiraltv  court  for  all  America  was 
authorized,  in  which  an  informer  or  prosecutor  might  bring 
his  suit  in  preference  to  the  local  court,  if  he  so  chose. 

Equally  alarming  to  the  commercial  provinces  was  the 
plan  to  make  the  old  ]\Iolasses  Act  really  productive  through 
a  reduction  of  rates.      The  former  duty  on  molasses  im- 

'  4  George  III,  c.  15. 

^  4  George  III,  c.  29.  Instead  of  employing  eighty  or  ninety  sloops 
in  the  whale  fishery  as  prior  to  this  time,  New  Englanders  were  em- 
ploying one  hundred  and  sixty  before  1775.  Macpherson,  op.  cit.,  vol. 
iii,  pp.  401,  567-568. 

*  4  George  III,  c.  15. 

*  4  George  III,  c.  15.    Only  the  main  provisions  are  noted  here. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  53 

ported  from  the  foreign  West  Indies  was  reduced  from  six- 
pence per  gallon  to  threepence,  with  the  understanding  that 
the  new  rate  would  be  collected.  The  old  duty  on  raw 
sugar  was  continued;  and  an  additional  duty  was  levied  on 
foreign  refined  sugar. 

Other  changes  were  made,  which  affected  colonial  mer- 
chants only  in  lesser  degree.  ^  The  purpose  of  certain  of 
these  was  to  enlarge  the  martcet  for  British  merchandise 
in  America  by  enhancing  the  price  of  foreign  manufactures^ 
Thus,  the  amount  of  the  duty  withheld  in  England  upon 
reshipment  of  foreign  goods  to  the  colonies  was  doubled.^ 
Import  duties  were  placed,  for  the  first  time,  upon  certain 
varieties  of  Oriental  and  French  drygoods  when  they  were 
landed  in  America.  Wines,  which  hitherto  had  been  im- 
ported directly  from  Madeira  and  the  Azores  without  duty, 
were  now  required  to  pay  a  high  tariff,  while  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  wines,  which  as  before  were  to  be  imported  by 
way  of  Great  Britain,  were  to  pay  only  a  low  duty."  Im- 
port duties  were  also  imposed  on  foreign  indigo  and  fgreign 
coffee  brought  into  the  colonies.  The  list  of  articles  which 
could  be  sent  to  Great  Britain  alone  was  increased  by  the 
addition  of  iron,  whale-fins,  hides,  raw  silk,  potashes  and 
pearlashes.  Slight  duties  were  placed  on  coffee  and  pimento 
when  shipped  from  one  colony  to  another. 

JThe  only  regulation  that  directly  concerned  the  planta-  ^ 
t!oh  provinces  in  any  unfavorable  w^ay  was  the  prohibition  3^ 
of  further  issues  of  legal-tender  currency  in  the  provinces 
outside  of  New  England.     This  restraint  v,^as  imposed  upon 
the  complaint  of  some  British  merchants  engaged  in  Vir- 

1  Prior  to  this  time,  the  amount  had  been  about  2^  per  cent. 

*  The  colonists  had  desired  to  obtain  permission  to  make  direct  im- 
portations of  wine,  fruit  and  oil  from  Spain  and  Portugal.  Pa.  Jcurn., 
June  7,  1764;  Bos.  Gaz.,  June  11. 


54 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


ginia  trade  and  was  merely  an  extension  of  the  principle 
which  had  been  applied  in  175 1  to  New  England/  ) 

K)issatisf action  with  the  acts  of  1764  was  thus  largely 
a  sectioiial  maftef^ffecting  chiefly  the  commercial "  prov- 
inces!,  It  is  net  surprising  that  thexhief  polemic  efforts 'of 
the  colonists 'came  from- provinces  such  as  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania]  or  that,  in  the  one  instance, 
the  author  was  a  lawyer,  who  time  and  again  had  been 
employed  b}'  smugglers  and  who  sympathized  with  them 
temperamentally ;  -  in  the  next  instance,  a  merchant,  who 
was  largely  concerned  in  illicit  trade  with  the  West  Indies; ' 
in  the  third,  a  gentleman- farmer  and  lawyer,  fully  cognizant 

^4  George  III,  c.  34;  Franklin,  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  v.  pp.  85-86, 
187-189;  Russell,  Review  of  American  Colonial  Legislation,  pp.  120-124. 

^  Otis,  James,  The  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies  Asserted  and 
Proved  (Boston,  1764).  This  pamphlet,  largely  speculative,  made  the 
novel  assertion  that  the  duties  of  1764  were  as  truly  a  fiscal  measure 
as  taxes  on  real  estate  would  be.  It  should  be  remembered  that  Otis 
had  been  retained  by  the  merchants  of  Boston  and  Salem  to  attack  the 
legality  of  the  writs  of  assistance  in  1761.  Otis,  wrote  Peter  OUver  in 
1781,  "  engrafted  his  self  into  the  Body  of  Smugglers,  and  they  em- 
braced him  so  close,  as  a  Lawyer  and  an  usefuU  Pleader  for  them, 
that  he  soon  became  incorporated  with  them."  Brit.  Mus.  Egerton 
Mss.,  no.  2671  (L.  C.  Transcripts) .  Leading  merchants  of  Boston,  like 
Thomas  Hancock  and  his  nephew  John,  lost  no  opportunity  to  recom- 
mend Otis  as  a  lawyer  to  commercial  houses  in  England.  Brown,  A.  E'., 
John  Hancock  His  Book  (Boston,  1898),  p.  33  et  seq.  Vide  also  Hutch- 
inson, Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  201. 

Closer  to  the  economic  roots  of  the  troubles  was  the  forceful  pamph- 
let, The  Sentiments  of  a  British  American  (Boston,  1764),  written  by 
Oxenbridge  Thacher,  who  had  been  Otis'  colleague  in  the  writs  of 
assistance  case.  Thacher  died  in  1765,  before  his  usefulness  to  the 
anti-parliamentary  party  had  fully  developed.  For  a  characterization 
of  the  two  men,  vide  Adams,  John,  Works,  vol.  x,  pp.  284-292. 

*  Hopkins,  Stephen,  The  Rights  of  the  Colonies  Examined  (Provi- 
dence, 1764).  Hopkins  also  had  three  sons  and  four  nephews,  all  cap- 
tains of  vessels.  Weeden,  Econ.  and  Soc.  Hist,  of  New  Engl.,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  584,  656,  658. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  55 

of  the  sources  from  Avhich  the  prosperity  of  his  community 
arose/ 

For  the  most  part,  this  hterature  of  protest  contained  a 
cogent  presentation  of  the  economic  springs  of  mercantile 
prosperity.  The  prevaiHng  note  was  sounded  by  a  com- 
ment in  Thacher's  pamphlet  on  the  recent  action  of  Parlia- 
ment :  "  Does  not  this,"  he  asked,  "  resemble  the  conduct 
of  the  good  wife  in  the  fable  who  killed  her  hen  that  every 
day  laid  her  a  Golden  Egg?  "  ^'he  new  measures  for  en- 
forcing the  acts  of  trade  were  roundly  denounced,  especially 
the  provisions  for  protecting  customs  officers  from  damage 
suits  in  case  of  mistaken  seizures,  and  the  provisions  grant- 
ing to  the  informer  or  prosecutor  the  right  to  choose  the 
court  in  which  he  wished  to  sue.  These  regulations  were 
termed  a  denial  of  the  common  law  and  of  trial  by  jury. 
The  new  duties  on  foreign  wines  were  complained  of,  on  the 
ground  that  wines  had  now  to  be  brought  to  America  by  a 
roundabout  and  expensive  route.  The  restricting  of  iron 
exports  to  Great  Britain  caused  protest,  especially  in  Penn- 
sylvania, because  cargoes  of  iron  had  always  found  a  ready 
rparket  in  Portuguese  ports.) '■> 

ic^he  cliorus  of  denunciation  rose  loudest  on  tlie  subject  of 
the  new,molasses  dutiesV,  This  appeared  to  the  pamphleteers 
a  species  of  economic  strangulation  by  which  the  colonies 
were  cut  off  from  the  source  of  their  specie  supply.  ''  The 
duty'  of  3d.  per  gallon  on  foreign  molasses  is  well  known 

'  Dickinson,  John,  The  Late  Regulations  respecting  the  British  Colo- 
nies .  .  .  considered  (Philadelphia,  1765).  Though  published  after  the 
passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  attention  was  given  almost  exclusively  to 
the  economic  effects  of  the  acts  of  1764.  Note  the  striking  similarity  of 
Dickinson's  views  to  Charles  Thomson's  arguments,  urged  in  a  letter 
of  November,  1765,  to  a  London  mercantile  house.  Thomson,  Papers 
(N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  xi),  pp.  7-12.  Thomson  was  an  importer 
and  also  had  interests  in  iron  manufacturing  and  in  rum  distilling. 
Harley,  L.  R.,  Life  of  Charles  Thomson  (Philadelphia,  1900),  passitn. 


CO  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

to  every  man  in  the  least  acquainted  with  it  to  be  much 
higher  than  that  article  can  possibly  bear  and  therefore  must 
operate  as  an  absolute  prohibition,"  declared  Hopkins.  If 
the  merchants  and  distillers  suffered  losses,  the  provincial 
farmers  would  become  deeply  involved,  because  their  surplus 
stock  and  products  had  been  sent  to  the  foreign  islands  in 
exchange  for  molasses.  If  there  were  no  specie  in  cir- 
culation, debts  could  not  be  paid  to  England,  importations 
must  be  reduced,  and  local  manufacturing  undertaken. 
^Vith  the  volume  of  money  rapidly  shrinking,  it  was  charged 
that  the  prohibition  of  further  issues  of  legal-tender  money 
was  calculated  to  heighten  the  distress,  since  paper  money 
had  generally  served  a  useful  purpose  as  a  circulating 
medium  within  provincial  boundaries.  Finally,  some 
warmth  was  displayed  in  referring  to  the  commercial  sys- 
tem as  a  whole,  and  the  question  asked  whether  the  dis- 
advantages which  the  colonies  suffered  under  it  and  the  en- 
hanced prices  which  the  colonists  paid  for  British  importa- 
tions loaded  with  British  taxes  at  home  were  not  equivalent 
to  a  tax  directly  levied  in  America.  U 

_,The  assumptions  and  arguments,  urged  by  the  pamph- 
leteers, received  substantial  coniirmation  from  the  prostra- 
tion of  industry  which  beg^an  to  be  apparent  throughout  the 
commercial  provinces.  ,  U  his  period  of  economic  depression 
was  not,  as  they  contended,  produced  entirely  by  the  re- 
strictive legislatioii"  of  i764^T;'yhe  begiffliing  of  the  change 
was  traceable  to  the 'more  vigorous  enforcement  of  the  old 
Molasses  Act  in  lyO'^'^^A  more  important  cause  was  the 
collapse  of  the  artificial  war-time  prosperity  which  the  pro- 
vinces  had  enjoyed.^     'The  presence  of  British  forces  in 

'Franklin,  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  v,  pp.  71-73;  speech  of  P.  Cust, 
M.  P.,  in  Bos.  Cliron.,  June  11,  1770;  Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
77-7^;  article  in  Pa.  Journ.,  Mch.  21,  1765;  Burke's  "'Observations  on 
the  Right  Honourable  Mr.  Grenville's  State  of  the  Nation,"  Bos. 
Chron.,  June  26,  1769;  "A  Friend  to  the  Colony"  in  Prov.  Gas.,  Mch. 
26,  1768;  "The  Citizen"  in  Pa.  Journ.,  Jan.  26,  1769. 


\ 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM 


57 


America  had  caused  a  great  influx  of  coin  for  the  paying 
and  provisioning  of  the  troops;  and  the  high  cash  prices 
paid  by  the  French  for  foodstuffs  added  to  the  supply  of 
specie7>  Under  such  stimulus,  prices  soared ;  merchants  in- 
creased their  stocks  and  undertook  speculative  risks ;  farm- 
ers enlarged  their  operations;  people  generally  began  to 
adopt  more  luxurious  modes  of  living.  <^he  close  of  the 
warland  the  disbanding  of  the  greatest  pkrt  of  the  army 
/dried  up  these  sources  of  abundant  specie?y  Merchants  and 
farmers  found  themselves  deprived  of  th^  profitable  mar- 
kets, with  an  overplus  of  supplies  on  hand.  An  especially 
serious  blow  was  administered  to  those  merchants  who  had 
succeeded  during  the  war  in  monopolizing  the  trade  of 
Havana  and  the  French  West  Indian  islands,  after  these 
colonies  had  fallen  into  the  possession  of  England.  The 
restoration  of  these  islands  at  the  conclusion  of  peace  greatly 
diminished  this  trade.  The  rice  planters  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  would  have  shared  in  the  distress,  had  not  j 
Parliament  enabled  them  by  the  act  of -i  764  to  continue  to  ^ 
e^ort  their  staple  to  these  new  markets. 
tBut  the  chief  cause  of  the  hard  times  was  the  restrictive  *> 
legislation  of  1764.'  >The  Boston  Post-Boy  of  June  3,  1765 
declared  that  not  one-fifth  as  many  vessels  were  employed 
in  the  West  Indian  trade  as  before  the  regulations  of  the 
preceding  year,  and  that  cash  had  practically  disappeared 
from  circulation.  The  mercantile  comimunity  experienced 
"  a  most  prodigious  shock "  at  the  failure  of  Nathaniel 
Wheelwright,  John  Sccllay,  Joseph  Scott  and  certain  other 
Boston  merchants  of  note.  John  Hancock,  v/hose  own 
trading  connections  were  with  many  parts  of  the  world, 
wrote  that  "  times  are  very  bad,  .  .  .  the  times  will  be 
worse  here,  in  short  such  is  the  situation  of  things  here  that 
we  do  not  know  who  is  and  who  [is]  not  safe."  ^ 

'  John  Hancock  His  Book,  pp.  61-62.     He  concluded :  "  The  affair  of 


58 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Conditions  were  bad  at  Newport,  also/  A  statement, 
issued  by  leading  citizens  of  New  York,  lamented  the 
dwindling  of  trade,  the  extreme  scarcity  of  cash,  the  pro- 
hibition of  paper  money  and  the  recent  restrictions  placed 
on  commerce.-  A  New  York  merchant  of  twenty  years' 
standing  withdrew  from  trade  because  he  was  apprehensive 
of  the  effects  of  the  new  regulations.  He  testified  before 
a  committee  of  Parliament  that,  whereas  the  price  of  mo- 
lasses at  New  York  had  formerly  been  is.  6d.  to  is.  9d.  per 
gallon,  the  threepenny  duty  had  increased  it  by  one  or  two- 
pence, and  the  price  of  the  rum  distilled  from  it  had  ad- 
vanced sufficiently  to  enable  Danish  rum  to  undersell  the 
American  on  the  Guinea  coast.  The  ten  or  a  dozen  New 
York  vessels,  formerly  engaged  in  the  slave  trade,  were  now 
idle.^  In  Pennsylvania,  it  was  complained  that  "  Trade  is 
become  dull,  Money  very  scarce,  Contracts  decrease,  Law- 
Suits  increase  so  as  to  double  the  number  of  Writs  issued 
in  every  County  within  two  Years  past  ..."  *     The  fann- 

Wheelwright's  failure  with  such  aggravated  Circumstances  is  the  great- 
est shock  to  trade  that  ever  happened  here."  In  another  letter  he 
wrote :  "  Money  is  Extremely  Scarce  &  trade  very  dull.  If  we  are  not 
rehev'd  at  home  we  must  live  upon  our  own  produce  &  manufactures." 
Ibid.,  pp.  63-64.  Hancock  had  taken  over  his  uncle's  business  upon  thfe 
latter's  death  in  August,  1764;  and,  according  to  Thomas  Hutchinson, 
old  Thomas  Hancock  had  amassed  great  wealth  by  "  importing  from 
St.  Eustatia  great  quantities  of  tea  in  molasses  hogsheads,  which  sold 
at  a  very  great  advance."    Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  pp.  297-298. 

^  Neivport  Merc,  Feb.  25,  1765. 

^  Statement  of  the  Society  of  Arts,  Agriculture  and  Oeconomy,  Wey- 
ler's  N.  Y.  Gas.,  Dec.  10,  1764. 

^Testimony  of  William  Kelly,  Feb.  11,  1766,  Brit.  Mus.  Add!.  Mss., 
no.  33030  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  ff.  130,  134-135,  ^37- 

* "  The  Farmer "  in  Pa.  Jonrn.,  Aug.  23,  1764.  The  Philadelphia 
merchant,  Benjamin  Marshall,  wrote  on  Oct.  22,  1764:  "  Ca?h  Mon- 
strous scarce  (I  believe  we  must  learn  to  Barter),  as  the  Men  of  War 
are  here  so  strict  that  nothing  can  escape  them  .  .  ."  Pa.  Mag.,  vol. 
XX,  p.  208.  Vide  also  the  business  correspondence  of  S.  Rhoads,  Jr.,  at 
this  period.    Ibid.,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  421-426. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  ^g 

ers  of  the  commercial  provinces  were  involved  in  the  gen- 
eral distress.  "  Merchants  and  Farmers  are  breaking  and 
all  things  going  into  confusion,"  wrote  a  New  Englander 
despondently/  "  What  is  your  City  without  Trade,  and 
what  the  Country  without  a  Market  to  vend  their  Com- 
modities?" queried  a  Pennsylvania  v/riter." 
'./"jThe  merchants  did  not  remain  idle  while  their  profits 
evaporated  and  their  debts  accumulatedT^sJ'hey  had  been 
excited  to  activity  by  the  first  rumors  that  the  old  Molasses 
Act  might  again  be  renewed  in  1764.  A  keen  observer  de- 
clared in  retrospect,  severalyears  later,  that  the  umon  among 
the  colonies  had  derived  "  its  original  source  from  no  Dbject 
of  a  more  Respectable  Cast  than  that  of  a""Successf ul  prac- 
tice in  Illicit  Trade,  I  say  contrived,  prompted  and  pro- 
moted by  a  Confederacy  of  Smuglers  in  Boston,  Rhode 
Island  and  other  Seaport  Towns  on  that  Coast."  ^  This 
gentry  were  aided  and  abetted  by  the  .rum-distillers,  who 
were  particularly  powerful  in  New  England.*  John  Adams 
was  franker  than  most  historians  when  he  reflected  in  his 
old  age:  "  I  know  not  why  we  should  blush  to  confess  that 
molasses  was  an  essential  ingredient  in  American  inde- 
p^idence."  " 

/^The  first  move  was  made  by  the  merchants  of  Boston, 
in- April',  1763,  when  they  organized  the  "Society  for 
encourag^insT   Trade   and    Commerce   within    the    Province 

^  A'.  H.  Gas.,  Dec.  7,  1764. 

^  "  The  Farmer  "  in  Pa.  Joiinu,  Aug.  23,  1764. 

^  Letter  of  Richard  Oswald,  a  native  American  and  a  Londoner  in 
the  American  trade,  to  Dartmouth,  Feb.  9,  1775;  Stevens,  Facsimiles, 
vol.  xxiv,  no.  2032,  pp.  3-4. 

*  In  another  portion  of  his  letter  Oswald  alluded  to  "  the  great  Rum 
Distillers  of  Boston  who  began  all  this  disturbance."    Ibid. 

*  He  added  sagely:  "Many  great  events  have  proceeded  from  much 
smaller  causes."     Works,  vol.  x,  p.  345. 


k 


5o  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

of  Massachusetts  Bay.''  \'  There  was  to  be  a  standing- 
committee  of  fifteen  to  watch  trade  affairs  and  to  call 
a  general  meeting  of  members  whenever  occasion  de- 
manded. A  memorial  was  drawn  up  for  presentation  to 
/'ttie  General  Court;  and  accounts  of  their  activities  were 
■  sent  to  the  merchants  in  other  provinces.  The  committee 
also  corresponded  with  influential  members  of  Parliament.^ 
Further  action  was  called  for  by  an  article  in  the 
Boston  Evening  Post,  November  21  and  28,  1763.  The 
writer  proposed  that,  at  the  instance  of  the  Boston  mer- 
chants, a  provincial  committee  of  m.erchants  representing 
the  maritime  towns  should  urge  the  General  Court  to  peti- 
tion Parliament  for  a  revision  of  the  acts  of  trade,  par- 
ticularly !or  the  removal  or  substantial  reduction  of  the 
duties  on  foreign  molasses  and  sugar.  Perhaps  in  response 
to  this  suggestion,  a  sub-committee  of  the  Boston  merchants 
requested  a  meeting  with  committees  of  the  merchants  of 
Marblehead,  Salem  and  Plymouth;  and  the  result  was  that 
the  merchants  of  these  ports  also  presented  memorials  to  the 
General  Court. 

1  The  merchants  of  New  York  were  the  next  to  take  action.' 
Of  these  merchants,  Lieutenant  Governor  Golden  said: 
"  Many  of  them  have  rose  suddenly  from  the  lowest  Rank 
of  the  People  to  considerable  Fortunes,  &  chiefly  by  illicit 
Trade  in  the  last  War.  They  abhor  every  limitation  of 
Trade  and  Duty  on  it.  &  therefore  gladly  go  into  every 
Measure  whereby  they  hope  to  have  Trade  free."  ^     They 

'  M.  H.  S.  Ms.,  91  L,  pp.  23-25.  The  rules  of  organization  were 
signed  by  one  hundred  forty-seven  merchants.  For  a  more  detailed 
account  of  this  organization,  vide  Andrews,  C.  M.,  "  The  Boston 
Merchants  and  the  Non-Importation  Movement,"  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs., 
vol.  xix,  pp.  161-167. 

*  Bos.  Gas.,  Jan.  16,  Oct.  29,  1764. 

^Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  68.  J'ide  also  Parliamentary  History  of 
England  (Cobbett,  W.,  ed.),  vol.  xvi,  p.  125. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  6l 

met  at  Burn's  Long  Room  on  January  27,  1764  and  took 
under  consideration  the  declining  state  of  trade.  '  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  memorialize  the  legislature  on  the 
situation  and  to  ask  their  interposition  with  Parliament.  ' 
The  committee  later  established  regular  meeting  nights.^ 
A  communication  in  the  N'ezv  York  Gazette  and  Post-Boy 
of  February  2  commended  the  rational  action  of  the  mer- 
chants and  declared  riotous  opposition  would  be  "  seditious 
and  injurious  to  Government "  when  redress  might  be  ob- 
tained by  dutiful  petition.  At  the  suggestion  of  the  New 
York  Committee  of  Merchants,  the  merchants  of  Phila- 
delphia became  active,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  urge 
the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  to  solicit  Parliament'  to  dis- 
continue the  molasses  duties  of  I733-" 

<  In  every  case  the  legislatures  took  the  desired  step,  al- 
though little  was  done  until  after  the  new  duties  of  1764 
had  become  a  la.w.^>  Only  Rhode  Island  had  been  fore- 
handed enough  to  petition  for  the  repeal  of  the  old  Molasses 
Act  prior  to  the  new  legislation  of  Parliament.  In  June, 
(the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives  ordered  its 
agent  in  London  to  press  for  a  repeal  of  the  new  duties  and 
also  to  protest  against  th&^ Stamp  Act?  which  was  on  the 
government's  program  for  1765.  A  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  urge  the  other  legislatures  on  the  continent  to 
join  in  the  movement.  In  Julyfthe  Rhode  Island  Assembly") 
appointed  a  committee  for  the  same  purpose;  and  a  com- 
mittee of  ^the  New  York  Assembly  began  a  similar  pro- 
paganda   in  October.^] 

1  Weyler's  A^.  Y.  Gaz.,  Jan.  30,  1764;  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Feb.  2; 
A^.  y.  Merc,  Mch.  5,  1764.  The  memorial  was  read  in  the  provincial 
assembly  on  Apr.  20,  1764. 

'  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Mch.  26,  1764. 

'  Frothingham,  R.,  The  Rise  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States 
(Boston,  1881),  pp.  173-174- 

*■  The  New  York  committee  was  instructed  to  correspond  "  on   the 


X 


62  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

U^lie  problem  of  the  commercial  provinces  was  to  enlist 
.  /the  support  of  the  plantation  provinces  in  their  campaign 
A  I  for  remedial  legislation.  In  this  wa}^  a  united  front  could 
I  be  shown  to  Parliament  and  the  chances  for  success  greatly 
increased.  The  tobacco  provinces  were  readier  of  response 
than  any  of  the  others,  because  of  the  unsatisfactory  condi- 
tion of  crops  and  crop  prices  and  because  of  the  scarcity 
of  money .^>  "  The  Courts  are  filled  with  Law-Suits,  and 
many  People  are  obliged  to  sell  their  Estates,"  wrote  a  Vir- 
ginian.^ _^eorge  Washington,  one  of  the  large  Virginia 
planters,  was  forced  to  explain  to  a  creditor  that  he  had 
fallen  "  so  much  in  arrears  "  because  he  had  not  had  "  even 
tolerable  crops  "  for  three  straight  years,  and  when  he  had 
one,  it  did  not  sell  well."  But  these  conditions  could  not 
be  attributed  to  the  acts  of  1764,  and  did  not  seem  to  pre- 
vail in  the  more  southerly  provinces. 

The  position  of  the  commercial  provinces  was  greatly 
strengthened  strategically  by  the  fact  that  the  Stamp  Act 
was  on  the  board  for  American  consideration  by  Parliament 
in  1765.  \  A  stamp  tax  was  clearly  a  departure  from  the 
ancient  custom  of  the  home  government.  It  was  more 
purely  a  fiscal  measure  than  was  the  so-called  Sugar  Act  of 
1764,  its  incidence  was  more  obvious  and  it  fell  on  people  in 
all  the  provinces.  Thus,  the  proposed  stamp  duty  afforded 
an   opportunity   to   the  mercantile   interests   to   stir   up   a 

Subject  Matter  of  the  Act,  commonly  called  the  Sugar  Act;  on  the 
Act  restraining  Paper  Bills  of  Credit  in  the  Colonies  from  being  a 
legal  Tender;  and  of  the  several  other  Acts  of  Parliament  lately  passed, 
with  relation  to  the  Trade  of  the  Northern  Colonies :  And  also  on  the 
Subject  of  the  impending  Dangers  which  threaten  the  Colonies,  of  being 
taxed  by  Laws  to  be  passed  in  Great-Britain."  Note  the  sequence. 
Pa.  Gaz.,  Nov.  28,  1764. 

^Virginia   and    Maryland   news  in   Prov.   Gas.,   Jan.   19,    1765;    Bos, 
Post'Boy,  June  10,  July  29. 

^Writings  (Ford,  W.  C,  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  200-202. 


y 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM 


63 


general  discontent  as  well  as  to  increase  local  dissatisfaction.,^  \ 
Consciously  or  not,  the  northern  legislatures  made  the  most 
of  the  occasion.  In  their  official  utterances,  they  dovetailed 
in  with  their  economic  indictment  of  the  Sugar  Act  a  protest 
against  the  proposed  Stamp  Act  as  an  inexpedient  and  un- 
constitutional measure.^  Their  efforts  to  secure  continental 
co-operation  were  successful :  petitions  and  remonstrances 
were  sent  from  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  ■ 
and,  with  considerable  reluctance,  from  Georgia." 

Meantime,'the  hard  times  had  been  causing  people  in  the 
commercial  provinces  to  retrench  expenses,  and  in  some 
cases  this  object  was  accomplished  by  concerted  efforTl  A 
clear-seeing  writer  in  the  Providence  Ga-zette,  October  6, 

1764,  proposed  a  continental  agreement  to  suspend  trade 
with  the  British  West  Indies,  in  order  to  strike  a  body  blow 
at  the  West  India  interest  in  Parliament;  but  it  was  ten 
years  too  soon  for  such  a  proposal  to  win  favorable  re- 
sponse. (Fifty  merchants  of  Boston)  set  an  example  in 
August,  1764,  by  .'signing  an  agreement  to  discard  laces  and 
ruffles,  to  buy  no  English  cloths  but  at  a  fixed  price,  and 
to  forego  the  elaborate  and  expensive  mourning  of  the 
times  for  the  very  simplest  display?^    The  mourning  reso- 

'  As  Oswald  observed  to  Dartmouth  in  1775.  the  disgruntled  mer- 
chants had  had  "  the  art  to  interweave  in  their  System  of  Grievances 
.  .  .  some  others  of  a  political  nature  and  apparently  of  a  more  liberal 
cast  than  do[e]s  really  lye  at  the  bottom  of  their  designs."  Stevens, 
Facsimiles,  vol.  xxiv,  no.  2032,  p.  5. 

*  Of  the  commercial  group,  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania  now  joined 
in  with  the  others.  The  southern  legislatures  generally  included  a  com- 
plaint against  certain  restrictions  placed  in  1764  upon  the  exportation 
of  lumber,  a  matter  that  was  satisfactorily  adjusted  by  Parliament  in 

1765.  South  Carolina  also  complained  of  the  Currency  Act.  Docu- 
mentary History  of  the  American  Revolution  (Gibbes,  R.  W.,  ed.),  vol. 
ii,  pp.  1-6.  The  Virginia  Committee  of  Correspondence  expressed 
alarm  at  the  duties  on  Madeira  wine  but  seemed  pleased  at  the  Cur- 
rency Act.     Va.  Mag.,  vol.  xii,  pp.  6-1 1. 

^Newport  Merc,  Aug.  20,  1764;  also  iV.  Y.Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Aug.  30. 


64 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


lutions  were  so  well  kept  by  the  people  generally  that  it  was 
reported  that  there  had  been  only  one  or  two  violations  after 
four  months'  trial,  although  almost  one  hundred  funerals 
had  occurred ;  and  it  was  estimated  that  the  saving  would  be 
more  than  £10,000  sterling  a  year/  Burials  "  according  to 
the  new  mode  "  were  recorded  by  the  newspapers  in  New 
Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey  and  New  York. 
.,  In  September  theJ  tradesmen  of  Boston  followed  in  the 
path  of  the  merchants,  by  agreeing  to  wear  only  leather  of 
Massachusetts  manufacture  for  their  work  clothesr  jln 
November  ^e  students  of  Yale  took  unanimous  action  to 
abstain  from  the  use  of  foreign  liquors.  The  people  of 
New  York  apparently  took  no  formal  action;  but  five  fire 
companies  of  Philadelphia  attempted  to  counteract  the  high 
price  of  mutton  by  agreeing  to  refrain  from  the  purchase  of 
lamb.*  One  company  added  a  pledge  against  the  drinking 
oi  imported  beerJ 

'  ^The  logical  counterpart  of  the  efforts  for  the  disuse  of 
impt)rted  superfluities  was  the  encouragement  of  domestic 
manufacture^  This  movement  had  greatest  vitalit}iin  New 
York,  where^  number  of  prominent  men  in  December,  1764, 
organized  the  "  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Arts,  Agri- 
culture and  Oeconomy,"  and  proceeded  to  award  premiums 
for  a  great  variety  of  local  productions,  to  print  informing 
pamphlets,  and  to  promote  the  formation  of  similar  societies 
throughout  the  province?!    In  other  provinces,  the  news- 

1  Bos.  Ere.  Post,  Jan.  21,  1765 ;  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Oct.  i,  8,  1764,  July  I, 
1765. 

^  Ibid.,  Oct.  I,  1764. 

'  -V.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Nov.  22,  1764. 

*  Pa.  Gaz.,  Feb.  28,  Mch.  7,  14,  May  16,  1765. 

^  Files  of  Weyler's  A'.  Y.  Gas.  and  of  the  N.  Y.  Merc,  from  Dec.  3, 
1764,  to  June  I,  1767.  The  notice  of  Dec.  3.  1764,  declared  that  the 
society   was    formed   upon   a  plan    "  wholly   detached    from    all    Party 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  65 

papers  teemed  with  instructive  articles  on  the  methods  and 
opportunity  of  American  manufactures;  and  the  provinces 
north  of  Maryland  showed  many  instances  of  increased  pro- 
duction of  linen  and  woolen  homespun.  Outside  of  New 
York,  greatest  progress  seems  to  have  been  made  at  Boston, 
where  the  "  Linen  Manufactory  "  produced  four  hundred 
yards  of  "  Bengals,  Lillepusias  and  Broglios  "  in  a  period 
of  three  months,  and  "  Lynn  Shoes  "  won  a  merited  popu- 
larity/ 

/A 

JjOn  March  22,  1765,  the  Stamp  Act  received  the  royal  as- 
sent, and  by  its  terms  was  to  go  into  effect  on  November 
the  first  of  that  year>  The  get  was  an  integral  part  of  the 
taxation  program  inaugurated  by  Grenville  in  1 764.  Stamp 
duties  were  placed  on  commercial  papers  of  various  kinds, 
on  deeds,  bonds,  leases  and  other  legal  documents,  on  pam- 
phlets, newspapers  and  advertisements,  and  on  articles  of 
apprenticeship,  liquor  licenses,  etc.  Heavy  fines  and  for- 
feitures were  provided  for  infractions  of  the  law,  and  these 
might  be  collected  through  the  vice-admiralty  courts  at  the 
option  of  the  informer  or  prosecutor.-,  ■ 

In  view  of  the  later  revclutiona.ry  movement,  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that^Le  Stamp  ActJderived  its  chief  import- 
ance from  the  fact  that  it  lifted  the  controversy  from  the 
profit-and-loss  considerations  of  the  northern  colonists  and 
•  furnished  a  common  ground  on  which  the  planting  provinces 
might  join  with  the  commercial  provinces  in  protest*^  The 
eighteenth  century  Anglo-Saxon  liked  nothing  better  than 

Spirit,  personal  Interest,  political  Views  or  private  Motives."  The  next 
week,  it  was  stated  that  the  severe  times  had  caused  the  formation  of 
the  society. 

^  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Oct.  8,  1764,  Jan.  24,  1765.  John  Hancock's  wealthy- 
uncle  had  bequeathed  £200  to  this  society  on  his  death  on  Aug.  i,  1764. 
Jbid.,  Aug.  13,  1764. 

^  5  George  III,  c.  12. 


56  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  expansive  phrases  of  the  natural  rights  theory;  and' the 
Stamp  Act  readily  lent  itself  to  protests  against^'  taxation 
without  representation  "and  "trial  without  jury.  '^ 
'^he  economic  burden  of  the  new  law,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
duties  of  1764,  fell  very  largely  on  the  commercial  provinces/ 
The  merchants,  lawyers  and  printers  were  the  classes  par- 
ticularly affected ;  and  these  classes,  as  we  shall  see,  felt  im- 
pelled to  take  a  leading  part  in  instigating  popular  demon- 
strations against  the  measure.^ 

/The  taxes  on  commerci^  documents  threatened  to 
paralyze  such  business  as  had  survived  the  restrictive  legis- 
lation of  the  preceding  year.>>  "  Under  this  additional 
Burthen  of  the  Stamp  Act,"  wrote  one  of  the  merchant 
princes  of  Boston,  "  I  cannot  carry  it  [trade]  on  to  any 
profit  and  we  were  before  Cramp'd  in  our  Trade  &  suffi- 
ciently Burthen'd,  that  an)^  farther  Taxes  must  Ruin  us." 
In  another  letter,  Hancock  declared  that  if  the  act  were 
carried  into  execution,  it  ''  will  entirely  Stagnate  Trade 
here,  for  it  is  universally  determined  here  never  to  submit 

^  Colonel  George  Mercer,  of  Virginia,  told  a  committee  of  Parliament 
in  Feb.,  1766:  "I  have  heard  the  Complaints  of  Right  and  oppression 
blended  together.  But  the  thinking  people  don't  speak  so  plainly  on 
the  right  as  others ;  they  complain  of  the  oppression  "  ;  he  apprehended 
that  "  the  Idea  of  Oppression  awakened  the  Idea  of  Right."  Brit.  Mus. 
Addl.  Mss.,  no.  33030  (L.  C.  Transcripts) ,  flf.  126,  129.  A  letter  from  a 
New  Yorker  to  an  English  friend  said :  "  It  is  thought  the  stamp  act 
would  not  have  met  with  so  violent  an  opposition  if  the  colonies  had 
not  previousl}'  been  chagrined  at  the  rigorous  execution  of  the  laws 
against  their  trade."  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Feb.  17,  1766.  Dean  Tucker 
wrote  in  his  pamphlet,  A  Letter  from  a  Merchant  in  London  to  his 
Nephew  in  North  America  (1766):  "What  is  the  Cause  of  such  an 
amazing  Outcry  as  you  raise  at  present?  Not  the  Stamp  Duty  itself; 
.  .  .  none  can  be  so  ignorant,  or  so  stupid,  as  not  to  see  that  this  is  a 
mere  Sham  and  Pretence.  What,  then,  are  the  real  Grievances  .  .  .  ? 
Why,  some  of  j-ou  are  exasperated  against  the  Mother  Country  on  the 
Account  of  the  Revival  of  certain  Restrictions  laid  upon  their  Trade." 
Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  86. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  67 

to  it,  and  the  principal  merchants  here  will  by  no  means 
carry  on  Business  under  a  Stamp."  Early  in  October,  he 
told  Governor  Bernard  that  he  would  rather  perform  the 
severest  manual  labor  than  continue  business  under  the  bur- 
den of  the  pending  Stamp  Act,  and  that  "  I  am  Determin'd 
as  soon  as  I  know  that  they  are  Resolv'd  to  insist  on  this  act 
to  Sell  my  Stock  in  Trade  &  Shut  up  my  Warehouse  Doors." 
In  a  letter  a  few  days  later,  he  protested  that  "  there  is  not 
cash  enough  here  to  support  it."  .Hancock's  commercial 
correspondence  of  this  period  sounded  a  genuine  note  of 
despair;  and  only  as  an  afterthought  did  he  allude,  once  or 
twice,  to  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  act.^> 

.l^oicing  the  apprehensions  of  the  merchants  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, John  Dickinson  questioned  whether,  under  present 
panic  conditions,  a  merchant's  commerce  could  bear  "  the 
payment  of  all  the  taxes  imposed  by  the  Stamp  Act  on  his 
policies,  fees  with  clerks,  charter  parties,  protests,  his  other 
notarial  acts,  his  letters,  and  even  his  advertisements.''./  He 
showed  that  hard  times  were  having  a  cumulative  effect. 
Money,  where  any  remained,  had  gone  into  hiding.  When 
creditors  took  out  executions,  they  discovered  that  the  lands 
and  personal  estates  could  be  sold  only  at  a  fraction  of  their 
value.  The  records  of  the  courts  attested  that  the  number 
of  debtors  had  increased  enormously;  at  the  last  term,  no 
less  than  thirty-five  persons  from  Philadelphia  County  alone 
had  sought  relief  under  the  insolvency  act,  although  the  law 
applied  only  to  those  who  owed  no  single  debt  above  £150. 
This  being  the  situation,  said  Dickinson,  "  from  whence  is 
the  silver  to  come,  with  which  the  taxes  imposed  by  this  act, 
and  the  duties  imposed  by  other  late  acts,  are  to  be  paid?  "  " 

'  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  pp.  83,  87,  88,  90.  Vide  also  pp. 
69,  70,  81,  86-90,  103-104,  115. 

-The  Late  Regulations  etc.,  Dickinson,  Writings  (Ford,  L.,  ed.), 
pp.  227-230.    Vide  also  pp.  440-441. 


68  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Jonathan  Watts,  a  member  of  the  New  York  Council, 
was  writing  home  in  the  same  strain :  "  I  cannot  conceive 
there  will  be  silver  or  gold  enough  to  carry  this  Act  and  the 
high  duties  that  are  laid,  through,  and  what  shall  people 
then  do  in  a  new  country  where  property  so  frequently 
changes  hands,  must  everything  stagnate,  and  will  not  a 
universal  discontent  prevail?  Man  is  man,  and  will  feel 
and  will  resent,  too  .  .  .  "  ^  The  Philadelphia  merchant, 
Stephen  Collins,  repeated  the  plaintive  note  in  many  letters 
to  London  creditors,  alleging  that,  owing  to  the  stagnation 
of  trade,  "  I  have  not  been  able  to  Forward  your  Remitances 
more  timely."  " 

Benjamin  Franklin  believed  that  the  new  act  would  fall 
"  particularly  hard  on  us  lawyers  and  printers."  ^  The 
lawyers  throughout  British  America  were  affected  by  the 
duties  imposed  on  all  important  legal  documents.  "  It  is 
well  known,"  commented  a  writer  in  the  New  York  Gazette 
and  Post-Boy,  February  20,  1766,  "  that  some  of  the 
Lawyers  in  the  several  Provinces  have  been,  and  still  con- 
tinue, the  principal  Writers  on  the  Side  of  American 
Liberty."  Indeed,  one  of  the  ablest  pamphlets  against  the 
Stamp  Act  was  written  by  Daniel  Dulany,  the  foremost 
lawyer  of  Maryland,  a  man  who  opposed  no  subsequent  tax 
of  Great  Britain  and  who  eventually  became  a  loyalist.* 

*  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  X,  p.  576.  "  N  "  claimed  in  the  Pa.  Journ., 
Sept.  S,  1765,  that  there  was  not  nearly  enough  money  in  America  to 
pay  the  current  debt  to  British  merchants,  let  alone  the  new  taxes. 
"  Publicola "  calculated  in  the  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  May  30,  1765, 
that  all  the  gold  and  silver  would  be  drained  off  in  two  years  at  most. 

^Letter  Book,  1760-1773  (L.  C.  Mss.),  May  18,  June  24,  1765;  Aug. 
14,  Nov.  10,  1766. 
^  JVritings  (Smyth),  vol.  iv,  pp.  361-363. 

*  Considerations  on  the  Propriety  of  imposing  Taxes  in  the  British 
Colonies  (October,  1765),  reprinted  in  Md.  Hist.  Mag.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  376- 
406.    Dulany  was  largely  responsible  for  the  nullification  of  the  Stamp 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  6g 

Although  he  based  his  opposition  largely  on  constitutional 
grounds,  he  did  not  fail  to  show  that  the  tax  fell  on  a  prov- 
ince, "  not  in  proportion  to  its  wealth,  but  to  the  multi- 
plicity of  juridical  forms,  the  quantity  of  vacant  land,  the 
frequency  of  transferring  landed  property,  the  extent  of 
paper  negotiations,  the  scarcity  of  money,  and  the  number 
of  debtors,"  and  he  argued  that  "  the  principal  part  of  the 
revenue  will  be  drawn  from  the  poorest  individuals  in  the 
poorest  colonies,  from  mortgagers,  obligors,  and  defend- 
ants." Lieutenant  Governor  Golden  of  New  York  had 
"  the  strongest  presumption  from  numerous  Gircumstances 
to  believe  that  the  Lawyers  of  this  Place  are  the  Authors, 
Promoters  &  Leaders  "  of  the  local  opposition  to  the  stamp 
duties.^ 

>Printers  were  directly  involved  in  the  new  act  as  pub- 
lishers of  newspapers  and  pamphlets.  The  formost  printer 
of  the  continent,  Benjamin  Franklin,  wrote  to  his  fellow- 
publisher  of  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  that  he  believed  the 
Stamp  Act  "  will  affect  the  Printers  more  than  anybody, 
as  a  Sterling  Halfpenny  Stamp  on  every  Half  Sheet  of  a 
Newspaper,  and  Two  Shillings  Sterling  on  every  Adver- 
tisement, will  go  near  to  knock  up  one  Half  of  both.    There 

Act  in  Maryland.  Latrobe,  J.  H.,  "  Daniel  Dulany,"  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  4-5.  Vide  also  the  views  of  William  Smith,  Jr.,  a  New  York  lawyer 
whom  Colden  characterized  as  "  a  violent  republican  independent "  and 
an  organizer  of  mobs.    4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  x,  pp.  570-57I- 

^Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  61-62.  He  continued:  "People  in  general 
believe  it,  and  many  must  with  certainty  know  it.  I  must  add  that  all 
the  Judges  have  given  too  much  Countenance  to  their  Proceedings  .  .  ." 
Vide  also  ibid.,  p.  92.  The  lawyers  of  New  York  were  discontented 
with  other  matters  besides  the  Stamp  Act;  and  Colden  claimed  that 
they  were  more  powerful  there  than  anywhere  else  in  America.  "  Noth- 
ing is  too  wicked  for  them  to  attempt  which  serves  their  purposes — 
the  Press  is  to  them  what  the  Pulpit  was  in  times  of  Popery."  Ibid.. 
p.  71. 


70  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

is  also  Fourpence  Sterling  on  every  Almanack."  ^  /..The 
V:   thirty-odd  newspapers  of  America  carried  on  a  tremend- 
A  ously  effective  propaganda  against  the  Stamp  Act,^  and  in 
no  later  crisis  exhibited  such  unanimity  of  protestAv 

Aside  from  their  influence  as  directors  of  popul^  opposi- 
tion, the  merchants,  lawyers  and  printers  were  faced  with 
the  problem  of  making  a  living  while  their  business  was 
legally  subject  to  the  use  of  stamps.  'QThe  merchants  re- 


fused to  use  stamps  in  their  business  transactions  and  usu- 
ally succeeded  in  keeping  the  ports  open  for  commerce*  when 
it  became  apparent  to  the  authorities  that  the  sale  of  stamps 
was  impracticable  or  impossible.^  /The  MawyersT*  in  first 
instance,  agreed  that  all  legal  business"  should  be  suspended 
until  the  Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed;  but  when  their 
purses  began  to  grow  lean  from  lack  of  clients'  fees  and  the 
merchants  and  creditors  clamored  for  the  opportunity  to 
collect  their  debts,  they  generally'induced  the  courts  to  open 
for  business  without  stamps!^"  This  long  interval  of  in- 
dolence and  idleness  will  make  a  large  chasm  in  my  affairs," 
wrote  the  lawyer  John  Adams  in  the  period  before  the 
courts  were  re-opened.  He  added :  "  I  have  groped  in  dark 
obscurity,  till  of  late,  and  had  but  just  known  and  gained  a 
small  degree  of  reputation,  when  this  project  was  set  on 
foot  for  my  ruin  as  well  as  that  of  America  in  general,  and 

^  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  iv,  pp.  363-364. 

"^  E.  g.,  Jonathan  Watts,  of  New  York,  wrote  on  Sept.  24,  1765 : 
"  You  will  think  the  printers  all  mad,  Holt  particularly,  who  has  been 
cautioned  over  and  over  again,  and  would  have  been  prosecuted,  but 
people's  minds  are  so  inflamed  about  this  stamp  act,  it  would  only  be 
exposing  Government  to  attempt  it."  4  M.  H.  S.,  vol.  x,  p.  576.  Holt 
published  the  Nezv  York  Gazette  and  Post-Boy  at  this  time. 

*  E.  g.,  vide  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  141 ;  4  M.  H.  S.,  vol. 
X,  p.  587. 

*  E.  g.,  vide  i  N.  J.  Arrh.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  540-548;  A''.  Y.  Merc,  Dec.  9,  23, 
1765 ;  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  138,  141-142. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  71 

of  Great  Britain."  ^  All  but  a  few  newspapers  continued 
publication  without  stamps;  and  those  few  newspapers  re- 
appeared when  it  became  evident  that  infractions  of  the 
law  would  entail  no  penalty. 

y^ht  period  between  the  enactment  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  , 

the  date  of  its  operation  was  marked  by  a  series  of  popular  \ 

i,J  demonstrations,    designed    to    coerce    the    colonial   stamp 
I  agents  into  resigningTl   Distressed  by  non-employment  and 
I  temperamentally  inclined  to  boisterous  forms  of  expression, 
the   rougher  elements   in   the  leading   seaports   responded 
readily  to  the  leadership  of  the  classes  disaffected  by  the 
legislation  of  1764  and  I765.> 

This  appeared  clearly  in  the  case  of  Boston,  where  the 
most  serious  disturbances  occurred."^  In  the  first  o^f  the 
lAugust  riots,  the  stamp  office  was  razed  by  a  mob,  and 
Hutchinson  declared :  "  It  is  said  that  there  were  fifty  gentle- 
men actors  in  this  scene,  disguised  with  trousers  and  jackets 


on."  ^  *In  the  succeeding  riots,  the  mob,  led  by  a  shoe- 
maker named  Mackintosh,  secured  a  promise  of  resignation 
from  Oliver,  the  stamp  collector,  and  showed  its  animus 
by  attacking  the  houses  of  the  registrar  of  the  admiralty  and 
the  comptroller  of  the  customs  and  by  destroying  the 
records  of  the  admiralty  court.  Lieutenant  Governor 
Hutchinson's  house  was  also  visited  and  despoiled.*  Hut- 
chinson believed  that  this  last  outrage  was  inspired  by  cer- 
tain smuggling  merchants  who  had  just  learned  of  certain 
depositions  sworn  against  them  before  him  several  months 
before.  We  have  it  on  the  word  of  one  merchant  writing 
to  another  that  Oliver's  promise  was  not  deemed  decisive 
enough,   and  that  therefore  the  "  Loyall  Nine "   repaired 

^  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  155-156. 

^  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  120-125;  Parliamentary  History,  vol. 
xvi,  pp.  126-131 ;  Palfrey,  History  of  New  Engl,  vol.  iv,  pp.  389-394- 
^  Letter  of  Aug.  15,  to  Halifax;  Palfrey,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iv,  p.  391. 


X 


72  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

to  "  Liberty  Hall  "  and  planned  a  public  resignation  under 
oath,  which  was  duly  carried  out  on  December  17.  "  We 
do  everything,"  added  the  merchant  a  little  anxiously,  "  to 
keep  this  and  the  first  affair  Private;  and  are  not  a  little 
pleas'd  to  hear  that  Mcintosh  has  the  Credit  of  the  whole 
Affair.  We  Endeavouryto  keep  up  the  Spirit  which  I  think 
is  as  great  as  ever."  ^v^he  Sons  of  Liberty,  composed  of 
Boston  workingmen,  performed  the  actual  work  of  vio- 
lence.y>It  is  perhaps  not  without  significance  that  their  reg- 
ular meeting-place  was  the  counting-room  of  a  distillery; 
and  John  Adams  records  that,  when  he  was  invited  to  attend 
one  night,  he  found  there  two  distillers!,  a  ship  captain,  the 
printer  of  the  popular  organ  and  four  mechanics.^ 

^  Henry  Bass  to  Samuel  P.  Savage,  Dec.  19,  1765.  M.  H.  S.  Procs., 
vol.  xliv,  pp.  688-689. 

*  Chase  and  John  Avery;  Joseph  Field;  Benjamin  Edes,  a  publisher 
of  the  Boston  Gazette;  John  Smith  and  Stephen  Cleverly,  braziers, 
Thomas  Crafts,  painter,  and  George  Trott,  jeweler.  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
178-179. 

Hutchinson's  own  analysis  of  mob  government  at  this  period  was  as 
follows :  "  It  will  be  some  amusement  to  you  to  have  a  more  circum- 
stantial account  of  the  model  of  government  among  us.  I  will  begin 
with  the  lowest  branch,  partly  legislative,  partly  executive.  This  con- 
sists of  the  rabble  of  the  town  of  Boston,  headed  by  one  Mackintosh, 
who,  I  imagine,  you  never  heard  of.  He  is  a  bold  fellow,  and  as  likely 
for  a  Masaniello  as  you  can  well  conceive.  When  there  is  occasion  to 
bum  or  hang  effigies  or  pull  down  houses,  these  are  employed;  but 
since  government  has  been  brought  to  a  system,  they  are  somewhat 
controlled  by  a  superior  set  consisting  of  the  master-masons,  and  car- 
penters, &c.,  of  the  town  of  Boston.  .  .  .  When  anything  of  more  im- 
portance is  to  be  determined,  as  opening  the  custom-house  on  any  mat- 
ters of  trade,  these  are  under  the  direction  of  a  committee  of  merchants, 
Mr.  Rowe  at  their  head,  then  Molyneux,  Solomon  Davis,  &c. :  but  all 
affairs  of  a  general  nature,  opening  all  the  courts  of  law,  &c.,  this  is 
proper  for  a  general  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  where  Otis, 
with  his  mob-high  eloquence,  prevails  in  every  motion,  and  the  town 
first  determine  what  is  necessary  to  be  done,  and  then  apply  either  to 
the  Governor  or  Council,  or  resolve  that  it  is  necessary  the  General 
Court  correct  it ;  and  it  would  be  a  very  extraordinary  resolve  indeed 
that  is  not  carried  into  execution."  Quoted  by  Hosmer,  J.  K.,  The  Life 
of  Thomas  Hutchinson  (Boston,  1896),  pp.  103-104. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  73 

'Conditions  probably  were  not  greatly  different  at  Phila- 
delphia.'. Although  the  stamp  collector  there  was  inclined 
to  lay  the  popular  outbreak  to  the  machinations  of  the 
"  Presbyterians  and  proprietary  minions,"  it  seems  rather 
more  significant  that  the  committee  which  asked  him  to  re- 
sign was  composed  of  five  merchants,  one  attorney  and  one 
printer/  In  New  York,  as  we  have  seen,  the  lawyers 
seemed  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  tumults,  aided  beyond 
a  doubt  by  the  merchants  and  printers. 
L^PopuIar  outbreaks  also  occurred  in  the  plantation  prov- 
inces; but,  lacking  the  multiplied  resentments  accumulated  ^nT 
by  two  years  of  hostile  legislation,  the  demonstrations  were 
neither  as  frequent  nor  usually  as  violent  as  in  the  commer- 
cial provinces!~^.The  planters  generally  were  wedded  to  the 
notion  of  dignified  protests  by  representative  assemblies; 
and  a  compact  working-class  element  was  non-existent,  ex- 
cept  at  Charleston.  The  agitation  of  the  newspapers  aided  f 
in  spreading  the  tumultuous  spirit  of  the  northern  trading 
towns  to  the  South.  Governor  Bull,  of  South  Carolina, 
testified  that  the  people  of  Charleston  were  generally  dis- 
posed to  obey  the  Stamp  Act,  "  but  by  the  artifices  of  some 
busy  spirits  the  minds  of  men  here  were  so  universally 
poisoned  with  the  principles  which  were  imbibed  and  propa-  - 
gated  from  Boston  and  Rhode  Island  ( from  which  Towns, 
at  this  time  of  the  year,  vessels  very  frequently  arrive)  that 
after  their  example  the  People  of  this  Town  resolved  to 
seize  and  destroy  the  Stamp  Papers  .  .  ."  "  There  was  in- 
deed a  shortage  of  currency,  chiefly  in  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina,  which  bore  hardly  on  men  owing  money  and  which 

*  Robert  Morris,  Charles  Thomson,  Archibald  McCall,  John  Cox 
and  William  Richards;  James  Tilghman;  and  William  Bradford,  editor 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Journal. 

'  Smith,  W.  R.,  South  Carolina  as  a  Royal  Province,  1719-1776  (New- 
York,  1903),  p.  351- 


•^'>%  J  g-T 


74  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  Currency  Act  of  1764  made  it  difficult  to  relieve. 
"  This  private  distress  which  every  man  feels,"  wrote  Gov- 
ernor Fauquier,  of  Virginia,  "  encreases  the  general  dis- 
j^,-'  satisfaction  at  the  duties  laid  by  the  late  Stamp  Act,  which 
breaks  out  and  shews  itself  on  every  trifling  occasion."  ^ 
However,«the  inconvenience  was  not  great  enough  to  cause 
the  people  to  take  part  in  the  efforts  to  establish  domestic 
manufacturing  or  to  boycott  British  goods.' 
;,  'The  merchants  and  factors  generally  lent  the  weight  of 
Itheir  influence  against  popular  demonstrationsA'"  Henry 
|Laurens^of  Charleston,  was  a  representative  of  the  best  that 
the  class  had  to  offer.  Wealthy,  of  an  excellent  American 
family  and  a  disapprover  of  the  Stamp  Act,  he  did  all  he 
could  to  discourage  "  those  infamous  inglorious  feats  of  riot 
and  dissipation  which  have  been  performed  to  the  No'ward 
.  .  ."  He  believed  that  "  the  Act  must  be  executed  and  .  .  . 
that  if  a  stamp  officer  were  so  timid  as  to  resign  and  a  Gov- 
ernor so  complisant  as  not  to  appoint  another  in  his  stead — 
we  should  in  one  fortnight  ...  go  down  on  our  knees  and 
pray  him  to  give  life  to  that  law.  What,  else,  would  become 
of  our  estates,  particularly  ours  who  depend  upon  com- 
merce? "  The  searching  of  houses  by  mobs  he  regarded  as 
"  burglary  and  robbery  "  and  he  saw  in  the  zeal  of  the  rioters 
only  a  desire  to  postpone  the  payment  of  their  debts. ^ 
Laurens's  attitude,  although  consistent  with  itself,  aroused 
popular  suspicion  and  brought  the  mob  down  on  his  own  ears. 

^  Brit.  Papers  ("Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  ii,  p.  44.  Other  evidence  of 
money  stringency  in  the  various  plantation  provinces  may  be  found  in : 
Bos.  Post-Boy,  Mch.  17,  1766;  N.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vii,  p.  144;  Gibbes, 
Doc.  Hist.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-6;  S.  C.  Gas.,  Dec.  17,  1765;  Ga.  Hist.  Soc. 
Colls.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  44-46. 

^Wallace,  D.  D.,  Henry  Laurens  (New  York,  1915),  pp.  116-122. 
Laurens's  business  was  that  of  factor  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  inde- 
pendent trader,  importing  and  exporting  on  his  own  account.  He  also 
had  planting  interests.    Ibid.,  pp.  16,  21,  44-47,  69,  123-136. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  7- 

In  Georgia,  some  of  the  merchants,  who-  at  first  had 
talked  against  the  act,  drew  off  and  even  endeavored  to  sup- 
press the  spirit  of  opposition  by  converting  the  majority  of 
the  shipmasters  to  their  change  of  view.  In  the  latter  part 
of  December  they  circulated  a  petition  asking  the  governor 
to  appoint  a  new  stamp  agent.  When  the  mob  got  wind  of 
this  and  protested  to  the  governor,  he  declared  he  would  act 
as  he  thought  best;  and  forty  merchants,  with  their  clerks, 
and  several  ship  captains  evinced  their  approbation  by 
arming  and  guarding  the  governor  until  danger  of  violence 
subsided.^   '  Some  stamps  were  actually  used  in  Georgiar* 

Christopher  Gadsden,  a  Charlestonian  possessing  large 
mercantile  and  planting  interests,  represented  a  different 
spirit.  A  radical  by  temperament,  he  was,  for  years,  to  be 
a  contradiction  of  anything  that  might  be  said  of  the  factors 
who  managed  most  of  the  trade  of  the  South.  He  em- 
ployed his  talents  on  the  present  occasion  in  instructing  the 
leaders  of  the  mob,  meeting  with  them  frequently  under 
Liberty  Tree  for  that  purpose.^ 

The  two  groups  of  provinces  met  on  common  ground  in 
the^tamp  Act  Congress  at  Ne:w  York  in  October,  iy6$J 
This  'event,  so  important  in  light  of  the  subsequent  trend 
toward  union,  received  scarcely  any  contemporary  mention 
in  the  newspapers,  even  at  New  York.  The  lower  houses 
of  the  various  provincial  legislatures  had  been  invited  by 
Massachusetts  to  send  committees  to  a  continental  congress 
to  confer  on  "  the  difficulties  to  which  they  are  and  must 
be  reduced  by  the  operation  of  the  acts  of  parliament  for 
levying  duties  and  taxes  on  the  colonies  "  and  to  unite  on 
petition  for  redress.^  ^Delegates  from  nine  provinces  ap-  ' 
pearecD 

^  Letter  from  Georgia  in  Newport  Merc,  Feb.   10,   1766.     Vide  also 
S.  C.  Gas.,  Feb.  23. 

'  Gibbes.  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  lo-ii;  Wallace,  op.  cit.,  p.  120. 
'  Bos.  Eve.  Post.  Aug.  26.  1765. 


76 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


It  was  clearly  the  design  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
Representatitves  that  the  congress  should  remonstrate 
chiefly  against  the  restrictive  and  revenue  measures  passed 
by  the  Parliament  in  the  years  1764-1765.  When  the  mem- 
bers of  congress  assembled,  they  found  it  necessary  to  make 
certain  alterations  in  their  ideas  before  a  common  ground- 
could  be  reached.  In  particular,  there  was  much  skirmish- 
ing as  to  the  form  in  which  the  various  arguments  and  views 
should  be  presented.  Qadsden,  the  South  Carolina  radical, 
displayed  great  political  acumen  in  insisting  that  all  sections 
could  harmonize  in  their  opposition  by  urging  their  views 
"  on  the  broad,  common  ground  "  of  natural  rights.^  The 
official  utterances  of  the  congress  show  the  result  of  this- 
plan.  A  great  deal  was  said  about  the  theoretical  rights  of 
the  colonists,  and  the  stamp  tax  and  the  laws  enabling  ad- 
miralty courts  to  try  breaches  of  the  trade  laws  were  roundly 
denounced  as  heinous  invasions  of  such  rights.  Neverthe- 
less, all  trace  of  the  spirit  of  the  Massachusetts  summons 
was  not  obliterated :  each  memorial,  with  varying  degrees  of 
emphasis,  set  forth  the  alarming  scarcity  of  hard  money^ 
and  requested  the  repeal  of  tlie  laws  restricting  trade  and  en- 
larging the  jurisdiction  of  the  admiralty  courts',  as  well  as 
the  act  imposing  the  stamp  duty." 

Meantime,Qn  the  commercial  provinces,  the  increasing 
evidences  of  economic  distress  had  stimulated  the  people  to 
multiply  their  efforts  to  retrench  expenses.  ,  Leading  cit- 
izens of  New  York  and  Boston,  as  well  as  of  Philadelphia, 
signed  resolutions  not  to  purchase  or  eat  lamb,  and  to  boy- 
cott any  butcher  who  sought  to  counteract  the  resolutions.' 

'  Frothingham,  Rise  of  Republic,  p.  188. 

^Authentic  Account  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Congress  held  at 
New  York,  in  MDCCLXV,  On  the  Subject  of  the  Stamp  Act  (1767). 
The  petition  to  the  House  of  Commons  is  especially  explicit  on  these 
points. 

*  Weyler's  .V.  Y.  Gas.,  Feb.  10,  17,  1766;  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Apr.  8,  1765,. 
Mch.  10,  1766;  Pa.  Gaz.,  Feb.  13,  1766. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM 


77 


The  movement  for  simpler  mourning,  so  popular  farther 
north,  now  spread  to  Philadelphia/  Articles  in  newspapers 
advocated  the  superiority  of  sage,  sassafras  and  balm  to  the 
enervating  beverage  of  tea."  The  New  York  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Arts,  Agriculture  and  Oeconomy  now 
reached  the  zenith  of  its  activity,  increasing  its  list  of 
premiums  for  local  manufactures,  establishing  spinning 
schools,  and  conducting  a  fortnightly  market  for  the  sale  of 
New  York  manufactures.  The  service  of  the  society  in  en- 
couraging flax  culture  and  linen  manufacture  was  of  more 
than  temporary  importance.  In  the  making  of  linen,  more 
than  three  hundred  persons  were  employed  from  the  middle 
of  1765  to  the  close  of  1766.^  Philadelphia  took  over  the 
idea  of  a  market,  and  three  times  a  week  linens,  shalloons, 
flannels,  ink-powder  and  other  wares  of  Pennsylvania  fabri- 
cation were  offered  for  sale.  Nearly  two  hundred  poor 
women  were  employed  in  spinning  flax  in  the  factory.*  In 
Rhode  Island  the  thrifty  maids  and  matrons  improved  the 
shining  hours  by  gathering  in  groups  and  spinning,  usually 
"  from  Sunrise  to  Dark."  The  maids  of  Providence  and 
Bristol  displayed  the  extent  of  their  resolution  by  bravely 
agreeing  to  admit  the  addresses  of  no  man  who  favored  the 
Stamp  Act.^ 

It  did  not  take.lb£  Amen cans^ long  to  2erceive  that  their 
measures  of  economic  self-preservation  might  be  capitalized 
to  good  advantage  as  political  arguments  for  the  repeal  of 
the  obnoxious  laws,  c^n  face  of  the  fact  tliat  British  im- 
ports were  rapidly  diminishing  from  natural  causes,  news- 

^  Pa.  Journ.,   Alay  16,  Sept.  12,  1765;  Pa.  Ga:;.,  Jan.  9,  1766. 

^  Pa.  Journ.,  Maj'  9,  1765;  N.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  May  30. 

'  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  Dec.  17,  31,  1767. 

*  Pa.  Journ.,  Nov.  28,  1765,  Jan.  23,  1766;  The  Record  of  the  Cele- 
bration of  the  200th  Anniversary  of  the  Birth  of  FrajikUn  (Hays,  I.  M., 
ed.),  vol.  ii,  p.  57. 

^Newport  Merc.,  Apr.  14,  May  12,  1766;  .V.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy, 
Apr.  3,  1766;  A  Proz:  Gac.  Aug.  24,  1765. 


^8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

paper  writers  in  New  York  and  Connecticut  urged  in  Sep- 
tember, 1765,  that  the  people  should  abstain  from  the  use 
of  British  manufactures  until  the  trade  restrictions  and 
taxes  were  removed.^ >  About  the  same  time,  a  number  of 
Boston  merchants,  in  writing  for  spring  goods,  ordered 
them  to  be  sent  only  when  the  Stamp  Act  should  be  re- 
pealed." But  to  New  York  belongs  the  credit  of  takingthe 
first  fonnal  action  for  the  bo}'cotting  of  British  goodsy  ' 

Four  days  before  the  Stamp  Act  was  to  go  into  operation, 
most  of  the  gentlemen  of  New  York  signed  an  agree- 
ment to  buy  no  European  wares  until  the  Sugar  Act  should 
be  altered,  trade  conditions  relieved  and  the  Stamp  Act  re- 
pealed/ Three  days  later  the  merchants  held  a  general  meet- 
ing and  agreed  to  make  all  pas,t  and  future  orders  for  British 
merchandise  contingent  upon  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act^> 
Such  merchants  as  were  shipowners  were  to  be  permitted 
to  bring  their  vessels  back  to  port  with  cargoes  of  coal, 
grindstones  or  other  bulky  articles.  'Two  hundred  m^erch- 
jants^ affixed  their  signatures  to  the  agreement.'  In  order  to 
protect  the  merchants  from  the  unrestricted  importers  of 
other  provinces,  the  retail  dealers  of  the  city  bound  them- 
selves to  buy  no  goods  whatsoever  which  should  be  shipped 
from  Great  Britain  after  January  i,  1766,  until  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act. ^^ The  merchants  of  Albany  agreed  unani- 
mously to  accept  the  New  York  resolutions.* 

^N.  Y.  Gas.  &•  Post-Boy,  Sept.  12,  1765;  Conn.  Gas.,  Sept.  13. 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Sept,  23,  1765;  also  .Y.  7.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Sept.  26. 

»A'.  Y.  Merc,  Oct.  28,  31,  Nov.  11,  1765;  N.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy, 
Nov.  7.  A  London  newspaper  of  Dec.  17  noted :  "  We  hear  that  the 
merchants  upon  'change  on  Wednesday  last  received  upwards  of  one 
hundred  letters  from  New-York,  countermanding  their  orders  for 
goods."  Newport  Merc.,  Feb.  24,  1766.  Colden  said  of  the  non-impor- 
tation agreement,  that  "  the  people  in  America  will  pay  an  extravagant 
price  for  old  moth  eaten  Goods,  and  such  as  the  Merchants  could  not 
otherwise  Sell."    Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  78. 

*  Weyler's  A''.  Y.  Gaz.,  Jan.  27,  1766. 


(5 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM 


79 


he  merchants  of  PhiladeIphia%ot  under  way  about  a 
week  after  New  York.  With  a  prefatory  statement  that 
the  trading  difficuhies  were  due  to  "  the  Restrictions,  Pro- 
hibitions, and  ill  advised  Regulations,  made  in  the  several 
Acts  of  the  Parliament  of  Great-Britain,  lately  passed  "  and 
that  they  regarded  the  Stamp  Act  as  the  last  straw,  they 
■^United  in  an  agreement  similar  to  that  of  the  New  YorkersJ^ 
More  than  four,  hundred  merchants  and  traders  signed  the 
agreement,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  observe  its  ex- 
ecution and  to  report  violations  to  the  body  of  subscribers^ 
Printed  forms  for  countermanding  former  orders  were 
distributed  to  every  local  merchant.^  /The  merchants  also 
sent  a  memorial  to  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of 
Great  Britain,  urging  their  assistance  in  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  and  the  removal  of  commercial  restrictions, 
particularly  the  restraints  on  paper  currency,  the  mo- 
lasses duty,  the  prohibition  of  the  exportation  of  bar 
iron  to  foreign  ports  in  Europe,  the  heavy  duties  on  INIa- 
deira,  and  the  requirement  that  European  wines  and  fruits 
must  be  imported  by  way  of  Great  Britaiql^^k  ^he  retailers 
of  Philadelphia  supported  the  merchants  by  refusing  to  buy 
any  goods,  shipped  from  Great  Britain  after  January  i, 
1/66,  except  those  approved  by  the  merchants'  committee. 

^  Local  shipowners  were  permitted  to  include  in  the  return  cargo  of 
their  vessels  from  abroad  dye-stuffs  and  utensils  for  manufacturing,  as 
well  as  bulky  articles.  The  agreement  was  limited  to  ]\Iay  i,  1766, 
when  another  meeting  should  consider  the  advisability  of  continuing  it. 
Pa.  Journ.,  Nov.  14,  21,  1765;  also  A''.  Y.  Merc,  Nov.  25.  The  original 
copy  of  the  agreement,  in  the  library  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania, contains  the  signatures  of  all  the  subscribers. 

-  For  samples  of  conditional  orders  of  Philadelphia  merchants,  vide 
letters  of  Benjamin  ^Marshall,  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xx,  pp.  209-211,  and  of 
Charles  Thomson,  .V.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  6-8. 

^  Pub.  Rec.  Off.,  C.  O.  5,  no.  114  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  pp.  161-169;  Pa. 
Gas.,  Nov.  28,  1765;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xx,  p.  211. 


8o  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

The   principal    backcountry    dealers    cheerfully  acquiesced 
in  this  regulation. 

vDn  December  9,  lyS^Jtht  merchants  of  Boston  drew  up  a 
formal  agreement  to  import  no  goods  from  England  until 
the  Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed,  except  utensils  for  manu- 
facturing, certain  bulky  articles,  and  articles  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  fishery.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  merchants 
and  traders  quickly  signedj^:  Salem  and  Marblehead,  the 
ports  of  next  importance,  came  into  the  same  measure,  and, 
soon  after,  Plymouth  and  Newbury.' 

Only  a  few  instances  of  enforcement  are  recorded  in  the 
case  of  the  several  provinces,  a  fact  which  indicates  lack 
of  infraction  and  not  an  absence  of  zeal./^Money  was 
tight;  business  men  in  Great  Britain  and  America  were 
retrenching.  It  has  already  been  suggested  that  the  non- 
importation agreements  derived  their  importance  less  as 
economic  measures  than  as  political  protests.  -  Indeed,  more 
than  three  months  before  the  first  non-importation  agree- 
ment had  been  signed,  London  houses  had  begun  to  notice 
a  sharp  falling-off  of  American  orders,  due  to  the  hard  times 
from  which  the  colonies  were  suffering.  ^Thus,  a  London 
concern  stated  on  July  5,  1765  that  "  so  few  and  so  small 
are  the  orders  from  America  .  .  .  that  the  ships  lately 
sailed  thither  have  not  had  half  their  lading."  ^  'It  was 
estimated  in  England  that,  for  the  entire  summer,  American 
commissions  for  English  goods  were  £600,000  less  than  had 
been  known  for  thirty  years,  and  that-  the  fall  orders  had 
not  been  so   small   "  in  the  memory  of   man."  *     British 

^  The  agreement  was  limited  to  May  i,  1766,  when  it  might  be  re- 
newed. Bos.  Post-Boy,  Dec.  9,  16,  23,  1765.  For  orders  of  Hancock  in 
accordance  with  this  agreement,  vide  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book, 
pp.  103,  106,  108,  112,  114,  115,  117. 

^  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  176. 

'  Pa.  Gaz.,  Sept.  12,  1765.     Vide  also  ibid.,  Oct.  24. 

*'  Ibid.,  Jan.  2,  1766.    Vide  also  ibid.,  Feb.  27;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Feb.  17. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  8l 

merchants  in  comparing  accounts  were  alarmed  at  the  ex- 
tent of  their  debts,  and,  knowing  the  precarious  state  of 
colonial  commerce,  they  contracted  their  credits  to  the  seri- 
ous embarrassment  of  their  American  correspondents/  In\, 
November,  a  London  house  declared  that  more  bills  from 
America  had  been  protested  within  six  months  than  in  the 
preceding  six  years."  On  the  other  hand,  the  Boston  Post- 
Boy  of  December  23,  1765  declared :  "  A  Merchant  of  the 
first  Rank  in  the  Town  Re-ship'd  in  one  of  the  last  Vessels 
for  London  above  £300  Sterling  worth  of  Goods  on  Ac- 
count of  Money's  being  so  scarce  that  they  would  not  vend." 
/jThe  adoption  of  non-importation  agreements  added  no  new^ 
difficulty  to  the  situation  already  existing.  ^ 

The  first  attempt  to  introduce  forbidden  British  mer- 
chandise occurred  •at  Philadelphia.  A  Liverpool  brig  ar- 
rived there  with  goods  debarred  by  the  merchants'  agree- 
ment. The  Committee  of  Merchants  took  the  matter  in 
hand  and  ordered  that  the  goods  be  locked  up  until  news 
of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  should  arrive.^'  A  little 
later  the  Prince  George  arrived 'at  New  York  with  goods  \ 
from  Bristol,  shipped  on  account  of  the  British  owners.  ; 
•At  the  demand  of  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty,"  the  goods  were 
delivered  into  their  care,  to  be  returned  to  Bristol  at  first 
opportunity.^ 

^  "A  Merchant "  in  Public  Ledger,  Apr.  i,  1765;  letter  from  London, 
N.  FI.  Gas.,  Nov.  22;  Burke  in  Bos.  Chron.,  June  26,  1769;  R.  I.  Com- 
merce, vol.  i,  pp.  168-169,  172-173.  On  the  basis  of  statements  from  the 
merchants  of  London,  Bristol,  Glasgow,  Liverpool  and  Manchester. 
Trecothick,  a  leading  London  merchant  in  American  trade,  told  a  com- 
mittee of  Parliament  in  February,  1766,  that  the  American  debts  to 
those  cities  amounted  to  more  than  £4,450,000.  Brit.  Mus.  Addl.  Mss., 
no.  33030  (L.  C.  Transcripts) ,  ff.  88.  104. 

'  Fa.  Gaz.,  Feb.  6,  1766.  Vide  also  petition  of  London  merchants  to 
House  of  Commons,  Jan.  17,  1766.    Pari.  Debates,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  133-135. 

*  Pa.  Gas.,  Apr.  24,  1766. 

*iV.  Y.  Merc,  Apr.  28,  1766. 


82  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Two  other  ports,  one  of  which  was  not  bound  by  any 
formal  agreement  of  non-importation  appHed  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  secondary  boycott  to  ports  where  the  stamp  tax 
was  being  paid.  The  country  people  at  Newburyport  at- 
tempted to  prevent  the  sailing  of  a  schooner  for  Halifax ;  and 
when  other  means  failed,  they  informed  the  customs  officers 
of  irregularities  in  her  cargo  and  occasioned  a  seizure  of 
the  vessel.^  At  Charleston,  S.  C,  the  fire  company,  com- 
posed of  radicals,  agreed  that  no  provision  should  be  shipped 
"  to  that  infamous  Colony  Georgia  in  particular  nor  any 
other  that  make  use  of  Stamp  Paper,"  on  penalty  of  death 
for  the  offenders,  if  they  persisted  in  error,  and  the  burning 
of  the  vessel.  A  schooner,  laden  with  rice  for  Georgia, 
attempted  to  put  to  sea  by  night;  but  the  master  and  the 
owner  were  stopped  by  a  threat  that  the  letter  of  the  reso- 
lution would  be  carried  out,  and  they  discharged  the  cargo.' 

About  the  middle  of  1766,  official  news  reached  the 
colonies  that  Parliament  had  given  heed  to  the  American 
situation  and  had  made  sweeping  alterations  in  the  trade 
and  revenue  laws  of  1764- 1765.  VThis  had  come  as  the 
result  of  a  combination  of  circumstances,  fortuitous  and 
natural,  which  had  spelled  victory  for  the  colonists.^  Lead- 
ing among  these  circumstances  were  the  distress  of  the 
British  merchants,  manufacturers  and  workingmen,  and  the 
examination  of  Dr.  Franklin  before  the  House  of  Commons. 
Figures  at  the  London  custom  house  showed  that  English 
exportations  to  the  commercial  colonies  had  declined  from 
£1,410,372  in  1764  to  £1,197,010  in  1765 ;  and  from  £515,- 

^  A''.  H.  Gaz.,  Jan.  10,  1766. 

*  Newport  Merc,  Mch.  17,  31,  1766;  S.  C.  Gas.,  Feb.  25;  Pa.  Journ., 
Mch.  20. 

*  Hodge,  H.  H.,  "  Repeal  of  Stamp  Act,"  Pol.  Sci.  Quar.,  vol.  xix,, 
pp.  252-276. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  83 

192  to  £383,224  to  the  tobacco  colonies — a  loss  which  was 
far  from  being  offset  by  an  increase  from  £324,146  to 
£363,874  in  the .  exportations  to  North  Carolina  and  the 
rice  colonies/  CDs-  Franklin  had  laid  bare  the  economic 
reasons  for  the  American  commotions,  declaring  them  to 
be  "  the  restraints  lately  laid  on  their  trade,  by  which  the  ^"' 
bringing  of  foreign  gold  and  silver  into  the  Colonies  was 
prevented;  the  prohibition  of  making  paper  money  among 
themselves;  and  then  demanding  a  new  and  heavy  tax  by 
stamps;  taking  away,  at  the  same  time,  trials  by  jury^  and 
refusing  to  receive  and  hear  their  humble  petitions."  ^  ,^ ' 

Whether  or  not  Franklin's  analysis  was  a  complete  state- 
ment of  the  case,  the  remedial  legislation  of  Parliament 
followed  generally  the  lines  indicated  by  him.  The  first 
step  taken  was  the  total  (repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,|  upon  an; 
understanding,  embodied  in  the  accompanying  Dej^lairatory  I  V/ 
Act,  that  Parliament,  nevertheless,  possessed  authority  to 
bind  the  colonies  "  in  all  cases  whatsoever."  ^  When  Sec- 
retary Conway  communicated  this  news  to  the  colonial  gov- 
ernors in  a  letter  of  March  31,  1766,  he  assured  them  that 
Parliament  would  at  once  undertake  to  "  give  to  the  Trade 
&  Interests  of  America  every  Relief  which  the  true  State  of 
their  Circumstances  demands  or  admits."  *  A  second  letter 
of  June  12,  signed  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond  as  secretary, 
announced  the  accomplishment  of  this  latter  object — that 
"  those  Grievances  in  Trade  which  seemed  to  be  the  first 
and  chief  Object  of  their  Uneasiness  have  been  taken  into 
the  most  minute  Consideration,  &  such  Regulations  have 

^  Bos.  Chron.,  Jan.  30,  1769. 

2  Writings  (Smith),  vol.  iv,  p.  420. 

'6  George  III,  c.  11  and  c.  12. 

*  T  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  550-552.  As  early  as  Feb.  14,  Henry 
Cruger  had  written  with  the  assurance  of  one  who  knew  the  facts  that 
the  molasses  duty  would  be  reduced  to  one  penny.  R.  I.  Commerce^ 
vol.  i,  p.  143. 


S4  THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

been  established  as  will,  it  is  hoped,  restore  the  Trade  of 
America  .  .  ."  ^ 

^^he  new  regulations  of  Parliament  did  indeed  remove 
the\hief  economic  objection  to  the  restrictive  act  of  1764.^ 
»The  threepenny  duty  on  fpreign  mplasses^ was  taken  off, 
and  in  its  place  a  very  low  amy  oifone  penny  a  gallon  Was 
substituted  upon  all  molasses,  whether  imported  from  Brit- 
ish or  foreign  possessions.  "The  high  duties  on  foreign  sugar 
were  retained;  but  the  cost  of  British  West  Indian  sugar 
was  reduced  by  removing  the  long-established  export  duties 
at  the  islan(M/^It  was  provided,  for  the  discouragement  of 
smuggling,  that  all  sugars  exported  to  Great  Britain  from 
the  continental  colonies  should  be  classed  as  "  French " 
and  charged  with  higher  duties  accordingly. 

'It  was  further  enacted  that  all  colonial  products,  whether 
"  enumerated  ''  or  not,  must  thereafter  be  entered  at  an 
English  port,  if  destined  for  a  European  port  north  of  Cape 
Finisterre '(other  than  the  Spanish  ports  in  the  Bay  of 
Biscay).  The  imposts  on  foreign  textiles  that  had  been 
collected  upon  importation  into  America  were  in  the  future 
to  be  collected  at  the  time  of  exportation  from  England. 
The  export  duties  on  British  colonial  pimento  and  coffee 
were  replaced  by  low  duties  upon  their  importation  into 
other  British  colonies. 

The  new  duty  on  molasses  met  the  wishes  of  the  agents 
of  the  continental  colonies :  and  it  would  appear  that  the 
merchants  of  Boston,  so  vitally  concerned,  had  intimated 

*  /  -V.  /.  Arch.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  553-554. 

'  6  George  III,  c.  52.  The  British  West  Indies  had  been  suffering 
hard  times  also,  and  Parliament  passed  special  legislation  at  this  time 
with  a  view  of  reheving  the  distress  there:  6  George  III,  c.  49,  for  the 
establishment  of  free  ports  at  Jamaica  and  Dominica.  Vide  Edwards, 
B.,  The  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the 
West  Indies  (London,  1793),  vol.  i,  pp.  239-243. 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM 


85 


in  advance  their  willingness  to  accept  such  a  reduction.^ 
It  was  understood  that  the  rum  business  of  the  commercial 
provinces  could  easily  support  a  small  tax.  Franklin  be>- 
lieved  that  the  new  regulations  afforded  "  reasonable  relief 
...  in  our  Commercial  grievances  "  "  and  the  Rhode  Island 
agent  wrote,  even  more  exuberantly,  to  the  governor  of 
Rhode  Island  that  "'  every  grievance  of  which  you  com- 
plained is  now  absolutely  and  totally  removed,  —  a  joyful 
and  happy  event  for  the  late  disconsolate  inhabitants  of 
America."  ^ 

4Qf  the  colonists  had  been  more  intent  on  their  theoretical 
rights  than  on  immediate  business  concessions,  the  keener 
minds  would  have  perceived  that  rejoicing  was  premature. 
Far  more  ominous  to  American  liberties  than  the  Declara-  .; 
tory  Act  was  the  fact  that  the  new  molasses  duty  applied  | 
to  all  molasses  imported,  British  as  well  as  foreign.  By  no 
possible  interpretation  could  it  be  construed  in  any  other 
light  than  a  tariff  for  revenue.  It  was  an  unvarnished  con- 
tradiction of  the  colonial  claim  to  "  no  taxation  without 
representation."  \ 

However,  the  remedial  legislation  of  1766  was  received 
in    America   wuth    great    popular    satisfacti-on.      Measures 

'Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765,  p.  279;  /  M.  PI.  S.  Colls., 
vol.  vi,  p.  193;  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  261  n.;  Quincy,  Mass. 
Reports,  p.  435;  Brit.  Mus.,  Egerton  Mss.,  no.  2671  (L.  C.  Transcripts)  ; 
Sagittarius's  Letters,  no.  xix,  pp.  84-88.  Dennys  de  Berdt,  agent  of  the 
Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives,  informed  Lord  Halifax  that 
a  duty  of  one  penny  on  molasses,  "  colected  with  the  good  will  of  the 
people,  will  produce  more  neat  money  than  3  pence  collected  by  the 
dint  of  Officers."  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  430.  Dickinson 
had  said  in  his  powerful  arraignment  of  "the  late  regulations"  that 
"  we  should  vv^illingly  pay  a  moderate  duty  upon  importations  from  the 
French  and  Spaniards,  without  attempting  to  run  them."  Writings 
(Ford),  vol.  i,  p.  224. 

^  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  iv,  p.  411. 

^  R.  I.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  491-493. 


■/  -tC 


85  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

against_the  use  and  importation  of  British  goods  collapsed. 
The  widespread  enthusiasm  for  local  manufacturing  greatly 
diminished  or  entirely  vanished.^ The  New  York  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  x\rts,  Agriculture  and  Oeconcmy  de- 
clined temporarily  into  a  comatose  state/  The  majority  of 
the  people  again  bowed  to  the  custom  of  expensive  funerals 
and  lavish  mourning.  At  a  public  entertainment  in  Phila- 
delphia, the  citizens  resolved  unanimously  to  give  their 
homespun  to  the  poor  and  on  June  the  fourth,  the  king's 
birthday,  to  dress  in  new  suits  of  English  fabrication.' 
When  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  reached  Boston, 
Hancock  wrote :  "  You  may  rest  assured  that  the  people 
in  this  country  will  exert  themselves  to  show  their  Loyalty 
&  attachment  to  Great  Britain  "  and  he  promised  his  "  best 
Influence  &  endeavors  to  that  purpose."  ^  Charles  Thom- 
son, of  Philadelphia,  wrote  to  Franklin  of  "  a  heartfelt  joy, 
seen  in  every  Eye,  read  in  every  Countenance;  a  Joy  not 
expressed  in  triumph  but  wnth  the  warmest  sentiments  of 
Loyalty  to  our  King  and  a  grateful  acknowledgment  of 
the  Justice  and  tenderness  of  the  mother  Country."  * 
-^he  generality  of  the  merchants  in  the  commercial 
provinces  were  not  s<,  unreservedly  gratified  by  the  action 
of  Parliament.  Lnportant  concessions  had  been  made  in 
response  to  the  American  propaganda;  indeed,  the  leading 
grievances  had  been  removed.  Yet  trade  had  not  been  re- 
stored to  the  footing  which  it  had  enjoyed  before  the  pass- 

'  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  Dec.  17,  24,  1767.  During  the  Townshend  Acts,  as 
we  shall  see,  the  society  revived  its  activities,  and  traces  of  its  proceed- 
ings may  be  found  in  the  Journal  as  late  as  Mch.  29,  1770. 

^  Pa.  Gaz.,  May  22,  1766;  Franklin  Bicentennial  Celebration,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  58-59.  Weyler's  A^.  F.  Gazette,  i\Iay  26,  1766,  suggested  that  this 
action  proceeded  from  the  desire  of  the  anti-proprietary  party  to  curry 
favor  with  the  king. 

^  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  pp.  124-125. 
*  A'.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  xi,  p.  16. 


/ 


FIRST  CONTEST  FOR  REFORM  87 

age  of  the  laws  of  1764  and  1765.     To  that  extent,  the  j 
merchants  had  fallen  short  of  their  goa    > 

In  November!,  1766,  the  New  York  merehants  summed 
up  their  outstanding  grievances  in  a  petition  to  the  House 
of  Commons,  containing  two  hundred  and  forty  signatures.^ 
In  the  following  January,  the  merchants  of  Boston  followed 
their  example."  These  two  papers  covered  substantially 
the  same  ground.  The  Bostonians  seized  this  early  op- 
portunity to  deny  that  rum  could  be  profitably  distilled  from 
molasses  that  bore  a  duty  amounting  to  practically  ten  per 
cent  ad  valorem,  as  did  the  one-penny  duty.  They  also 
protested  against  the  administrative  regulations  of  1764, 
declaring  that  one  part  of  them  made  the  proper  registra- 
tion of  a  vessel  an  expensive  and  tedious  process,  and  that 
another  part  granted  naval  officers  autocratic  powers  of 
seizure,  together  with  protection  from  damage  suits.  ^    The 

*  Weyler's  N.  Y.  Gas.,  May  4,  1767;  Pitt,  Wm.,  Correspondence 
(London,  1838),  vol.  iii,  p.  186.  Vide  also  the  statement  of  "Americus," 
copied  into  Weyler's  A''.  Y.  Gas.,  Jan.  19,  1767,  from  a  London  news- 
paper. 

'  M.  H.  S.  Mss.:  9/  L,  pp.  27,  31 ;  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  xiii,  pp. 
45I-4S2. 

*  The  New  Englanders  had  a  special  grievance,  which  was  of  first 
importance  while  it  lasted.  In  1765  Governor  Palliser,  of  Newfound- 
land, had  prevented  American  fishermen  from  taking  cod  off  Labrador 
and  in  the  Strait  of  Belle  Isle.  His  action  was  based  upon  a  narrow 
interpretation  of  the  statutes  relating  to  the  Newfoundland  fisheries, 
and  upon  a  behef  that  a  smuggling  trade  was  being  carried  on  with  the 
French  of  Miquelon  and  St.  Pierre.  A  petition  of  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives,  presented  about  this  time,  asked  for  an  act 
of  Parliament  to  prevent  such  restraints  in  the  future.  The  ministry 
would  not  concede  this;  but  in  March,  1767,  they  agreed  to  revise  Pal- 
liser's  instructions  so  as  to  preclude  any  further  interruption  of  the 
legitimate  fishing-trade.  This  action  apparently  settled  the  matter 
satisfactorily.  Ibid.,  pp.  447-448,  451-452;  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  pp. 
347-348;  5  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  219-220;  Andrews,  "  Boston  Mer- 
chants and  Non-Importation  Movement,"  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol. 
xix,  pp.  173-174. 


gg  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  n 63-177 6 

New  Yorkers,  on  the  other  hand,  stood  alone  in  their  conten- 
tion that  the  exclusion  of  foreign  rum  from  the  colonies 
was  a  hardship,  averring  that  it  was  a  necessary  article  of 
exchange  at  the  Danish  West  Indies  particularly. 
^Qn  most  points  the  two  petitions  were  in  essential  agree- 
ment. The  high  duty  on  foreign  sugar  was  said  to  elim- 
inate it  as  an  article  of  trade,-although  it  was  a  commodity 
frequently  used  to  fill  out  a  return  cargo.  This  excessive 
duty,  said  the  New  York  merchants,  "  had  induced  the 
Fair  Trader  tO'  decline  that  Branch  of  Business,  while  it 
presents  an  irresistable  Incentive  to  Smuggling  to  People 
less  scrupulous."  The  requirement  that  all  sugars  exported 
to  Great  Britain  from  the  continental  colonies  should  be 
classed  as  "  French  "  was  said  to  prevent  a  valuable  return 
to  Great  Britain  for  her  manufactures.  The  high  duty 
on  Madeira  wine  was  objected  to  as  a  discouragement  to  its 
importation  into  America  and,  therefore,  to  the  exportation 
of  American  foodstuffs  and  lumber  to  the  Wine  Islands. 
The  requirement  as  tO'  the  importation  of  fruit  and  wine  from 
Spain  and  Portugal  was  again  held  up  as  a  grievance.^  The 
new  regulation,  which  required  all  outgoing  commodities  to 
be  entered  at  a  British  port  before  going  on  to  European 
ports  north  of  Finisterre,  was  said  to^  increase  the  cost  of 
voyages  unduly  and  preclude  the  competition  of  colonial 
merchants  in  European  markets.  The  exportation  of  for- 
eign logwood  and  of  colonial  lumber,  provisions  and  flax- 
seed was  especially  affected  by  this  restriction. 

Of    the    grievances    here    enumerated,    the    regulations 
against  smuggling  had  already  begun  to  prove  less  irksome 

^  In  1767,  Townshend  desired  to  remove  this  grievance,  but  was  un- 
successful. It  was  urged  that  a  direct  trade  between  Portugal  and 
America  would  be  a  hazardous  relaxation  of  the  acts  of  trade.  5  M. 
H.  S.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  231,  236;  Pa.  Gas.,  July  16,  1767. 


FIRST  COX  TEST  FOR  REFORM  89 

in  practice  than  they  appeared  on  paper.^  Thus,  in  1764, 
the  Rhode  Island  legislature  had  forbidden  the  governor  to 
administer  the  oaths  to  British  customs  officials,  and  the 
latter  had  been  forced  to  suspend  operations.  In  1765,  a 
customs  collector  in  ^Iar}dand  had  been  violently  assaulted ; 
and  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  the  officials  were 
afraid  to  execute  the  laws  after  the  Stamp  Act  riots.  For 
the  future,  the  necessity  for  smuggling  seemed  somewhat 
les^ned  by  the  radical  reduction  of  the  molasses  duty^--^ 
^One  grievance  had  not  been  included  by  the  petitioners — 
the  failure  of  Parliament  to  provide  relief  for  the  currency 
situation.  \  The  colonial  merchants  had  probably  placed 
reliance  tipon  the  assurance  of  the  London  merchants,  com- 
municated the  preceding  June,  that  the  government,  after 
much  deliberation,  had  concluded  to  postpone  a  regulation 
of  colonial  paper  money  until  the  colonies  could  be  consulted 
upon  a  scheme  for  a  general  paper  currency  up«n  an  inter- 
colonial basis.  ^  Unfortunately,  however,  nothing  was  to 
come  of  this  plan;^  and^^he  money  stringency,  though  sonie- 

^Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765,  pp.  301-302;  Arnold,  S.  G., 
History  of  Rhode  Island  (New  York,  i860),  vol.  ii,  pp.  257-259;  Col- 
den,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  124. 

-  Pa.  Gas.,  Aug.  21,  1766,  also  Weyler's  .V.  Y.  Gas.,  Aug.  25 ;  New- 
port Merc.,  Sept.  i ;  Bos.  Post-Boy.  Sept.  i ;  N.  H.  Gas.,  Sept.  4. 
Franklin  had  confidently  expected  action  from  Parliament  on  this  sub- 
ject while  revision  of  the  trade  laws  was  being  undertaken.  U^ritings 
(Smyth),  vol.  iv,  p.  411. 

^The  dilatory  course  of  the  British  government  in  this  matter  seems 
scarcely  excusable.  The  British  merchants  in  the  American  trade,  with 
the  backing  of  the  colonial  agents,  worked  for  the  repeal  of  the  Cur- 
rency Act  of  1764,  and  proposed  a  plan  by  which  colonial  bills  of  credit 
should  be  legal  tender  for  everything  except  sterling  debts  payable  in 
Great  Britain.  The  ministry  refused  in  1767  to  listen  to  this  plan, 
partly  because  of  irritation  over  New  York's  cavalier  treatment  of  the 
Quartering  Act.  Pa.  Gas.,  Apr.  9,  1767;  Pa.  Journ.,  Apr.  23,  July  30. 
In  the  same  year  Granville  proposed  in  Parliament  a  plan  for  a  gen- 
eral paper  currency  which  was  intended  as  a  means  of  increasing  the 


.^0  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

what  relieved  by  the  reopening  of  trade  with  the  foreign 
West  Indies,  was  to  become  increasingly  distressing  in  the 
next  three  or  four  years  as  the  redemption  periods  of  the 
outstanding  paper  money  arrived  and  the  volume  of  legal 
tender  thereby  became  greatly  contracted. ,.  Thus,  the  real 
trial  in  New  York  began  with  the  redemption  of  its  paper 
money  in  November,  1768.  V  In  these  later  years,  com- 
plaints of  the  scarcity  of  money  came  chiefly  from  the  prov- 
inces outside  of  New  England,  and  were  voiced  by  govern- 
ors, newspaper  writers  and  legislative  petitions.^  Many 
sagacious  men  of  the  time  believed  that  the  British  govern- 
ment was  guilty  of  grave  injustice,  particularly  in  the  case 
of  those  provinces  where  the  power  to  issue  legal-tender 
money  had  never  been  abused.* 

American  revenue.  This  did  not  receive  serious  consideration.  5  M. 
H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  ix,  p.  231.  New  York  w^as  given  relief  from  the  severe 
money  stringency  by  a  special  act  of  1770:  10  George  III,  c.  35.  Fin- 
ally, an  act  of  1773  (13  George  III,  c.  57)  permitted  colonial  paper 
money  to  be  received  as  a  legal  tender  for  payment  of  colonial  duties, 
taxes,  etc.     Vide  infra,  pp.  243-244. 

^  Becker,  C.  L.,  The  History  of  Political  Parties  in  the  Province  of 
New  York,  1760-1776  (Univ.  Wis.  Bull.,  no.  286),  pp.  65-71,  77-79,  88, 
95,  and  references. 

^  E.  g.,  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  175-176;  i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  xviii, 
p.  46;  "Mercator"  in  Pa.  Journ.,  Sept.  14,  1769;  Brit.  Papers  ("Sparks 
Mss."},  vol.  ii,  pp.  184-186,  220-225,  263-267.  Vide  also  Franklin,  Writ- 
ings (Smyth),  vol.  v,  pp.  71-73. 

*  For  a  statement  of  the  case  of  New  York,  vide  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls., 
vol.  X,  pp.  520-521;  of  Pennsylvania,  Franklin,  Writings  (Smyth),  vol. 
V,  pp.  1-14. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Second  Movement  for  Commercial  Reform 
(1767- 1 770) 

'Although  the  colo'nial_mierchants  had  won  their  chief  de-    I 
mands  in  their  conteg^with  Parliament,  they  had  yet  fallen    | 
short,  in  several  respects,  of  attaining  their  ultimate  goal,    | 
i.  <?•:  a  restoratixDa-_4i-ilie„comniercial.  .S3^stem  as  it  existed  in    | 
the  days  before  1764.     TJi[s  purpose  was  the  objective  of    | 
the  mercantile  provinces  in  the  subsequent  years,  and  was    * 
relinquished  by  them  only  when  it  became  apparent  that    I 
their  agitation  for  commercial_redress  was  unloosing  social    | 
forces  more  destructive  to  business  interests  than  the  mis-    f 
guided  acts  of  Parliament.    The  typical  merchant  cared  little 
about  academic  controversies  over  theoretical  right ;  but  he 
was  vitally  concerned  in  securing  every  practicable  conces- 
sion  he   could   without   endangering  the   stability   of   the 
empire/    Paul   Wentworth.   in  writing  his   "Minutes  re- 
specting_politicaL Parties  in  America  "  in  1778,  took  care  to 
dif¥erentia±e_the^  merchant  class  from  all  other  groups  of 
malcontents  in  the  period  leading  to*  the  Revolutionary  War. 
After  showing  their  purpose,  he  made  it  clear  that. their 
influence  controlled  a  very  large  majority  of  the  people 
throughout   the  provinces    at    the    outset.^    iiTJie   ultimate  | 
success  of  the  merchants  depended  upon  their  ability  to  | 
retain  this  position  of  leadership,  to  control  public  opinion  i 
in  America,  and  to  direct  the  course  of  oppositional 

The  experience  of  the  years  1 764-1 766  gavathe  merchant 
■classlf^od  for  sober  reflection.     Intent  on  making  out  a 

1  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol.  v,  no.  487. 

91 


^2  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

complete  case  for  themselves/they'had,  in  their  zeal,  over- 
reached themselves  in  calling  to  their  aid  the  unruly  elements 
of  the  population^  These  unprivileged  classes  had  nevei* 
before  been  awakened  to  a  sense  of  their  muscular  influence 
in  community  affairs;  and,  under  the  name  of  "  Sons  of 
Liberty,"  they  had  instinctively  stretched  out  for  alliance 
with  their  brethren  in  other  cities/  »Dimly  the  merchants 
began  to  perceive  the  danger  oi  an  awakened  self-conscious 
group  of  the  radical  elements^  well  might  they  be  apprehen- 
sive, as  Golden  recorded,  "  whether  the  Men  who  excited 
this  seditious  Spirit  in  the  People  have  it  in  their  power  to 
suppress  it."  -  Men  of  large  propertied  interests  were  un- 
doubtedly more  sensitive  to  the  danger  than  were  the  smaller 
merchants ;  some  of  the  former  had  exhorted  the  people  of 
New  York  city  against  "  mob  government  "  while  the  Stamp 
Act  riots  were  still  under  way.^ 

The  violence  of  the  colonial  propaganda  had  alienated 
from  the  mercantile  side  such  influential  men  as  Governor 
Bernard  and  Lieutenant  Governor  Hutchinson,  of  Massa- 
chusetts,"*  and  had  cooled  the  ardor  of  such  important  fig- 
ures as   Dulany,  of   Maryland,  and   Joseph   Galloway,   of 

^  iRamifications  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  were  to  be  found  in  New 
York.  Albany  and  other  New  York  towns,  in  Philadelphia,  Boston, 
Providence,  Portsmouth,  several  towns  of  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey, 
and  in  Baltimore  and  AnnapoHs.     Becker,  N.  Y.  Parties,  pp.  46-48. 

*  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  99.  Vide  also  p.  iii.  Even  Charles  Thom- 
son, the  Philadelphia  merchant,  hoped  that  the  whole  people  would  not 
be  credited  with  the  "  acts  of  some  individuals  provoked  to  madness 
and  actuated  by  despair."  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  xi,  p.  16.  The 
merchants  of  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  apologized  to  the  Committee  of  Mer- 
chants of  London  for  the  "riots  or  tumults"  as  being  "the  follies  of 
less  considerate  men"  than  themselves.  /  A''.  /.  Arch.,  vol.  xxv,  pp. 
235-237. 

^  Becker,  .Y.  Y.  Parties,  chap.  ii. 

*  An  excellent  modern  example  of  the  same  type  of  mind  may  be 
found  by  reading  Peabody,  A.  P.,  "  Boston  Mobs  before  the  Revolu- 
tion," Atl.  Monthly,  vol.  Ixii,  pp.  321-333. 


,  y> 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  93 

Pennsylvania/  i^or  the  future,  the  merchants  as  a  class 
were. resolved  to  reljL^upon  orderly  methods  of  protest — 
memorials  and  the  boycott/  A  first  step  had  been  taken  by 
the  merchants  of  New  York  and  Boston,  in  accordance  with 
this  new  policy,  by  the  sending  of  petitions  to  Parliament 
for  trade  redress  in  the  winter  of  1766-1767.",.^* 
S^  Such  was  the  situation  when  Parliament  made  its  next 
attempt  to  reorganize  British  imperial  policy.  The  new- 
plan  found  its  justification  in  the  fact  that  colonial  theorists 
had,  as  yet,  discovered  nothing  "  unconstitutional "  or 
"  tyrannical  "  in  revenue  duties  collected  at  American  ports. 
The  recent  molasses  duty  was  the  best,  but  not  the  only,  ex- 
ample of  the  willingness  of  Americans  to  pay  an  "  external 
tax  "  without  protest. ■''  Charles  Townshend  was,  thus,  act- 
ing within  the  best  traditions  of  British  practical  statesman- 
ship, when  he  proposed  to  build  a  revenue  act  based  upon 
the  colonists'  own  views  of  the  powers  of  Parliament^ 

Townshend's  policy,  enacted  as  the  will  of  Parliament 
about  the  middle  of  1767,  not  only  dealt  with  taxation,  but 
also  proposed  to  stren£;then  the  customs  service  where  re- 
cent experience  had  shown  it  to  be  inadequate.  A  third  X-- 
measure,  designed  to  meet  a  temporary  emergency,  was  the 
suspension  of  the  legislative  functions  of  the  New  York  \ 
Assembly  until  that  body  shoiild  comply  with  all  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Quartering  Act.* 

'  Galloway's  biographei/  analyzes  tlie  character  of  his  propertied  in- 
terests and  then  adds :  'v^e  feared  the  tyranny  of  mob  rule  more  than 
the  tyranny  of  Parliament.^  Baldwin,  E.  H.,  "Joseph  Galloway,"  Pa. 
Mag.,  vol.  xxvi,  pp.  163-164,  289-294. 

-  Vide  supra,  pp.  87-88. 

*  The  colonists  also  paid  revenue  duties  on  enumerated  goods  im- 
ported from  another  British  colony  (25  Charles  II,  c.  7),  on  coffee 
and  pimento  imported  from  British  possessions  (6  George  III,  c.  52), 
and  on  imported  wines  (4  George  III,  c.  15). 

*•  It  is  not  necessary  to  recount  here  this  familiar  episode.    The  mer- 


04  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

The  revenue  feature  of  Townshend's  policy  was  acGorr>- 
plished  by  adding  a  list  of  port  duties  to  those  already  in. 
force.  VThe  following  articles  were  to  be  taxed  at  the  time 
of  their  landing  in  America :  five  varieties  of  glass,  red  and 
white  lead,  painters'  colors,  sixty-seven  grades  of  paper,  and 
tea/  >A11  these  articles  were  British  manufactures,  except 
tea,  which  was  handled  by  the  greatest  British  monopoly  of 
the  times,  the  East  India  Company.  The  imposition  of 
the  three-penny  tea  tax  in  America  was  accompanied  by  the 
remission  of  the  duty  paid  at  the  time  that  the  tea  was  im- 
ported into  Great  Britain,  the  object  being  to  enable  dutied 
tea  to  undersell  any  tea  that  was  smuggled  into  the  colonies.^ 

One  portion  of  the  revenue  act  was  designed  "  for  more-   ■  ^ 
efifectually  preventing  the  clandestine  running  of  goods.  .J''    I 
'With  this  purpose  in  view; -.it  was  provided  that  the  revenue   I 
produced  by  the  duties  should  be  used  to  free  the  judges  and   V 
civil  officers  in  such  colonies  as  "  it  shall  be  found  neces.-     ' 
sary  "  from  financial  dependence  on  the  local  legislatures^  j 
More  immediately  to   the  point,.,  express  legalization  was^ 
given  to  the  hitherto  questionable  practice  of  the  colonial 
supreme  courts  in  issuing  writs  of  assistance  to  customs 
officials.  /By  means  of  these  writs,  customs  officers  were  to 
receive  power  to  search  for  contraband  goods  in  any  house 
or  shop,  and,  in  case  of  resistance,  to  break  open  doors, 
chests,  etc.,  and  seize  the  goods  in  question. 

Other  regulations  were  designed  to  strengthen  the  ad- 
ministrative side   of  the   customs    service.^     These   made 

chant  class  were  not  interested  in  this  act  of  Parliament;  and  in  the 
various  non-importation  agreements  adopted  later,  this  law  was  not 
once  named  for  repeal. 

^  7  George  III,  c.  46. 

*  7  George  III,  c.  56.  The  East  India  Company  was  required  to  make 
good  any  deficiency  in  the  revenues  which  might  result  from  the  dis- 
continuance of  certain  tea  duties.  Farrand,  Max,  "  Taxation  of  Tea,. 
J76y-iy72,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  266-269. 

'  7  George  III,  c.  41. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


95 


possible  the  establishment  of  a  board  of  commissioners  of 
■the  customs  at  Boston,  with  entire  charge  of  the  collection  of 
customs  throughout  the  continent  as  well  as  at  Bermuda  and 
the  Bahamas.,~->  The  commissioners  were  given  power  to 
place  the  customs  service  on  a  basis  of  comparative  effic- 
iency. Disputes,  which  had  hitherto  been  carried  to  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Customs  at  London  for  settlement, 
were  to  be  determined  by  this  new  American  board  with 
much  less  trouble,  delay  and  expense  to  the  parties  con- 
cerned. .^ 

Certain  changes  in  the  interest  of  greater  efficiency  were  "">>. 
also  made  in  the  system  of  colonial  courts  of  vice-admiralty/  ' 
In  addition  to  the  courts  already  existing  in  the  se\^eral 
provinces,  vice-admiralty  courts  of  large  powers  were  es- 
tablished at  Boston,  Philadelphia  and  Charleston  with  orig- 
inal jurisdiction  over  the  capture  of  vessels  in  their  respec- 
tive districts  and  with  appellate  jurisdiction  ov'er  the 
sjLibordinate  vice-admiralty  courts, 
%.  ^he  situation  in  which  the  merchants  of__thej;ommercial 
provinces  found  themselves  in  the  latter  months  of  1 767 
was  not  unlike  their  situation  in  the  latter  part  of~i7547\ 
save  that  on  this  later  occasion  PhilaHelphia  did  not  seem  to 
be  as  greatly  affected  as  the  other  ports.  ^Again,  the  mer- 
chants _were  confronted  with  trade  restrictions — some  of 
them  hanging  over  from  r754^^^wBrch  reduced  business 
profits. '  Again,  Hhey  faced  new  and  rigorous  regulations 
against  smuggling,  1  regulations  which  betokened  a  serious- 
ness of  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  government  which  was 
not  open  to  misconstruction.  And  again,'*  they  perceived 
that  the  burden  of  seeking  redress  must  fall  upon  their  own 
shoulders, '; the  planters  of  the  South  being  involved  less 
directly  and  less  obviously  in  the  new  legislation.^ 

^  8  George  III,  c.  22.    Vide  also  N.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  459-460, 


•  ^ 


X 


g6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

r^he  determination  of  the  merchants  to  conduct  their 
campaign  for  redress  along  legal  and  peaceable  lines  was 
at  once  made  manifest!^  On  November  20,  1767,  the  day 
the  Townshend  acts  became  effective 'James  Otis,  the  lawyer 
of  the  Boston  merchants,  presided  over  a  town  meeting; 
and  after  telling  the  people  that  relief  should  be  sought 
"in  a  legal  and  constitutional  way,"  he 'roundly  denounced 
mob  riots,  even  to  the  extent  of  declaring  that  "  no  possi- 
ble circumstances,  though  ever  so  oppressive,  could  be  sup- 
posed sufficient  to  justify  private  tumults   and   disorders"^. 

v^.  .  ."  The  selectmen,  most  of  whom  were  merchants  by 
trade,  appealed  to  the  people  a  few  days  later,  in  an  article 
over  their  signatures,  to  avoid  "  all  outrage  or  lawless  pro- 
ceeding "  and  stand  firm  "  in  a  prudent  conduct  and  cautious 
behaviour."  ^  In  a  similar  spirit,  John  Dickinson,  the 
wealthy  Pennsylvania  lawyer,  in  his  "  Letters  from  a 
Farmer  in  Pennsylvania."  published  serially  during  the  sub- 
sequent three  months,  took  frequent  and  emphatic  occasion 
to  condemn  "  turbulence  and  tumult  "  and  to,  la«4~ilxon- 
stitutional  modes  of  obtaining  relief. "2v  This  was  the  spirit 
in  which  the  second  contest  for"  commercial  reform  g'ot 
under  way.  'Had  the  conflict  been  of  shorter  duration, 
the  desires  of  the  leaders  might  have  been  realized.  But  the 
length  of  the  contest,  with  the  increasing  restlessness  and 
self-confidence  of  the  radical  elements,  made  the  introduc- 
tion of  mob  methods  inevitable/^ 

A 

»The  course  of  opposition  pursued  by  the  merchants  par- 

^  I'ide  Bos.  Posi-Boy,  Nov.  30,  1767,  and  Frothingham,  Rise  of  Re- 
public, pp.  206-208,  for  these  and  other  instances.  Vide  also  Hutchin- 
son, Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii.  pp.  180-181. 

*  The  twelve  articles  appeared  originally  in  issues  of  the  Pa.  Chronicle 
from  Dec.  2,  1767  to  Feb.   15,  1768.     For  Dickinson's  views  on  "hot, 
rash,  disorderly  proceedings,"  vide  in  particular  Letter  III;  Writings 
.    (Ford),  vol.  i.  pp.  322-328. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  ^7 

took  of  a  double  character!  JQn  the  one  hand '  there  were 
]the  activities  of  the  smuggHng  merchants,  protected  by 
^popular  opinion  and  bent  upon  the  pursuit  of  gain  in  de- 
fiance of  pariiamentary  restrictions.  Qil  the  other  hand, 
there  stood  the  whole  mercliant_xlass,.__confident  of  their_ 
power  to  coerce  the  nation  of  shopkeepers  into  concessions^ 
through  exercise  of  the  boycott,  and  prepared  to  deydpp 
this  instrument  beyond  anything^dreamed-Qf-iinring  Stamp 
Act  timesTv 

f  Smuggling  proved  to  be  the  first  channel  through  which 
\|:olence  was  injected  into  the  struggle.  There  occurred 
tKe  usual  vicious  sequence:  evasion  of  the  law  leading  to 
defiance  of  the  law,  and  defiance  of  the  law  breeding  vio- 
lence. After  the  revision  of  the  trade  laws  in  1766  and  the 
passage  of  the  new  acts  of  1767,  the  character  of  colonial 
contraband  trade  changed  greatly.  <^he  running  of  mo- 
lasses, which  had  formerly  formed  the  great  bulk  of  illicit 
traffic,  had  been  rendered  considerably  less  profitable  by 
the  reduction  of  the  duty.^  ^^he  Townshend  duties,  with 
a  single  exception,  fell  on  articles  manufactured  in  Great  I       *, 

Britain;   and  instead   of   encouraging  smuggling  in   these 
articles, .  served  as  a  stimulus  to  their  production  in  the   ■ 
colonies.  ^^ 

The  exception  noted,  the  duty  on  tea,  was  so  ingeniously 

'  Since  the  duty  has  been  reduced,  "  the  whole,  tho'  grievous,  has 
been  regularly  paid."  Observations  of  the  Merchants  at  Boston  upon 
Several  Acts  of  Parliament,  etc.  (1770),  pp.  29-30.  It  should  further 
be  noted  that,  beginning  with  the  year  1768,  a  succession  of  temporary 
acts  removed  the  prohibition  from  the  exportation  of  American  meats 
and  butter  to  Great  Britain,  and  sometimes  from  cereals  and  raw  hides 
as  well.  E.  g.,  vide  8  George  III,  c.  9;  9  George  III,  c.  39;  10  George 
III,  c.  I,  c.  2;  II  George  III,  c.  8;  13  George  III,  c.  i.  c.  2,  c.  3,  c.  4, 
c.  5;  15  George  III,  c.  7.  The  passage  of  these  acts  made  it  less  neces- 
sary for  colonial  merchants  to  seek  in  foreign  markets  commodities 
which  might  serve  as  remittances  to  England  and  thus  reduce  the 
temptation  to  smugghng. 


98 


THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHAXTS :  1763-1776 


contrived  as  to  have  the  immediate  effect  of  lowering  the 
price  of  customed  tea  in  America  below  that  of  any  that 
could  be  smuggled  from  Holland  or  elsewhere/  This  con- 
dition lasted  until  1769  when  the  East  India  Company, 
hard  pressed  by  creditors  and  seeking  to  recoup  some  of  its 
losses,  advanced  the  upset  price  of  tea  at  the  public  auctions 
in  Great  Britain.  This  caused  the  exporting  merchant,  who 
bid  in  the  tea,  to  raise  the  price  to  the  American  merchant,, 
and  the  American  merchant  to  raise  the  price  to  the  colonial 
retailer.  So  that  the  colonial  consumer  thereafter  found 
it  advantageous  to  drink  Dutch  tea ;  and  tea  smuggling  be- 
gan to  thrive.' 

Until  that  time,  it  would  appear  that  the  chief  concern 
of  the  smugglers  was  the  running  of  wine  from  Madeira 
and  the  Azores,  a  traffic  vastly  stimulated  by  the  high  duty 
demanded  for  legal  importation.^ __  In  view  of  the  com- 
motions that  resulted^__one  might  add  jii_sugplementation 
of  John  Adams'  remark  concerning  molasses  that  wine  was 
another  essential  ingredient  of  American  Independence. 
The  importation  of  Dutch,  French  and  German  manu- 
factures without  stoppage  at  Great  Britain,  as  required  by 

^  Tea  imported  from  Great  Britain  became  ninepence  cheaper  per 
pound.    Bos.  Gaz.,  Aug.  15,  1768;  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Dec.  19,  1774. 

^  Hutchinson  to  Hillsborough,  Aug.  25,  1771,  Bos.  Gas.,  Nov.  27,  1775. 
Vide  infra,  p.  250. 

'  This  duty  was  no  less  than  seven  pounds  per  tun  under  the  act  of 
1764.  As  Kelly,  the  New  York  merchant,  told  a  committee  of  Parlia- 
ment, "  wherever  there  is  a  great  difference  of  Price,  there  will  be  a 
Daring  Spirit  to  attempt  [smuggling]  notwithstanding  all  Preventions." 
Brit.  Mxis.  Addl.  Mss.,  no.  33030  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  f.  136.  For  ex- 
ample, an  official  report,  made  evidently  for  the  Customs  Board,  stated 
that  thirty  vessels,  entering  at  New  York  from  Madeira  and  the  Azores, 
had  not  entered  sufficient  goods  to  load  one  vessel.  Ihid.,  no.  15484,  f.  6. 
Colden  said  that  few  New  York  merchants  were  not  engaged  in  con- 
traband trade  and  that  "  Whole  Cargoes  from  Holland  and  Ship  Loads 
of  Wine  "  had  been  brought  in  without  the  payment  of  duties.  Letter 
Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  133-134. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


99 


law,  probably  continued  much  as  before;  and  there  may 
have  been  a  sHght  increase  in  the  volume  of  the  illicit  export 
trade,  due  to  the  fact  that  after  1766  all  American  com- 
modities, shipped  for  European  ports  north  of  Cape  Finis- 
terre,  must  first  be  entered  at  a  British  port. 

The  continuance  of  smuggling  after  1767  should  not  be 
made  to  argue  the  total  failure  of  Townshend's  endeavor 
to  reform  the  customs  administration,  >:The  Board  of  Cus- 
toms  Commissioners  at  Boston  performed  a  vastly  creditable 
service  in  reducing  peculation  and  laziness  on  the  part  of 
officials  and  in  establishing  a  stricter  system  of  coast  con- 
trol. \  The  number  of  customs  employees  was  greatly  in- 
creased— in  the  case  of  Philadelphia,  trebled  in  the  years 
1767-1770.^  Writs  of  assistance  were  more  generally  and 
more  effectively  used  than  at  any  earlier  period.  Revenue 
cutters  were  stationed  at  leading  ports ;  and  smaller  vessels, 
belonging  to  the  navy  and  acting  under  deputation  of  the 
commissioners,  searched  out  suspected  ships  in  the  numer- 
ous rivers  and  inlets.  A  representation  of  the  Boston  mer- 
chants, made  in  1 770,  declared  that  the  Customs  Board  had 
employed  upwards  of  twenty  vessels  that  year,  and  that 
some  of  the  captains  had  purchased  small  boats  of  their 
own  to  search  in  shallow  waters."  ^Indoubtedly  the  total 
volume  of  illicit  trade  was  smaller  after  1767  than  at  any  ^ 
period  subsequent  to  the  enactment  of  the  Molasses  Act  in 
1733;  ^  and  this  was  ckie,  in  some  degree,  to  the  activities 
of  the  Customs  Board. *\ 

^  Channing,  History  of  United  States,  vol.  iii,  pp.  88-89. 

-  Observations  of  the  Merchants  at  Boston,  etc.,  pp.  24-25. 

^  On  the  other  hand,  Golden  claimed,  in  November,  1767.  and  re- 
peatedly in  the  following  months,  that  at  New  York  "  a  greater  quan- 
tity of  Goods  has  been  Run  without  paying  Duties  since  the  Repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act  than  had  been  done  in  ten  years  before."  Letter  Books, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  133-134,  13S,  148,  153,  163,  172. 

*  Note  the  table  of  penalties  and  seizures,  quoted  by  Professor  Chan- 


lOO  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


^\vo  conditions  militated  against  the  success  of  the  Cus- 
toms Board  in  wiping  out  smuggHng.  One  was  the  extent 
of  the  coastHne  to  be  watched.  The  other  was  the  active^ 
sympath}^  which  the  populace  extended  to  the  smugglersS^ 
The  importance  of  this  latter  factor  was  shown  by  the 
peremptory  treatment  of  those  who  were  reckless  enough 
to  reveal  to  a  customs  officer  the  secret  of  their  neighbors' 
prosperity.  Thus,  an  informer  cowered  before  a  gathering 
of  merchants  and  inhabitants  of  New  Haven  in  September, 
1769,  and  humbly  acknowledged  his  iniquity  in  attempting 
to  inform  against  I\Ir.  Timothy  Jones,  Jr.,  for  "  running 
of  goods."  ^  During  the  following  month  an  informer  at 
Boston  was  tarred  and  feathered  and  paraded  through  the 
principal  streets ;  ^  and  three  others  of  his  kind  in  New 
York  received  similar  treatment — "  to  the  great  Satisfac- 
tion of  all  the  good  Inhabitants  of  this  City,  and  to  the 
great  Terror  of  evil  doers,"  as  one  loyal  New  Yorker 
averred.' 

Popular  sympathy  also  produced  collisions  with  the  cus- 
toms officials.  While  in  discharge  of  his  duty,  Jesse  Saville, 
a  tide  waiter  of  the  custom  house  at  Providence,  was  viol- 

ning,  op.  £it.,  vol.  iii,  p.  89  n.  Eloquent  evidence  of  the  prevalence  of 
smuggling  as  late  as  1770  is  shown  in  a  survey  of  the  customs  districts 
and  ports,  made,  it  would  appear,  for  the  Customs  Board.  This  report 
is  entitled,  "  Ports  of  Xorth  America.''  It  shows  clearly  that  wide 
stretches  of  coast  were  free  from  proper  customs  supervision  and 
makes  detailed  recommendations  for  stricter  oversight.  Considerable 
smuggling  is  also  alleged  in  the  plantation  provinces  at  this  period 
Brit.  Mus.  Addl.  Mss.,  no.  15484  (L.  C.  Transcripts). 

^  New  London  Gas.,  Sept.  29,  1769;  also  Mass.  Gaz.  &  News  Letter, 
Oct.  5. 

^  Ibid.,  Nov.  2,  9,  1769;  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  pp.  259-260. 

^  Mass.  Gaz.  &  News  Letter,  Oct.  12,  1769.  Colden  wrote  in  January, 
1768,  to  Grenville:  "No  man  dare  inform,  so  that  whole  cargoes  have 
been  run  without  entry  in  the  Custom  House."  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii, 
P-  153- 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  lOi 

ently  assaulted  and  then  tarred  and  feathered,  in  1769.  A 
reward  of  fifty  pounds  sterHng  for  the  perpetrators  of  this 
act  was  vainly  offered  by  the  Customs  Board/  In  July 
of  the  same  year,  a  mob  at  Newport  dismantled  and  burnt 
the  revenue  sloop  Liberty,  which  had  just  brought  into  the 
harbor  two  vessels  suspected  of  smuggling.^  "  Both  vessels 
that  were  seized  have  since  proceeded  on  their  respective 
voyages,"  noted  the  Neivport  Mercury  laconically  on  July 
22.  At  Philadelphia,  the  revenue  officials  attempted  in 
April,  1769,  to  get  possession  of  about  fifty  pipes  of  ]\Ia- 
deira  wine  that  had  been  imported  without  payment  of 
duties.  Their  efforts  stirred  up  a  mob  which  stole  away  the 
booty  from  under  their  very  noses  and  maltreated  some 
of  the  officers.  Later,  the  merchants  offered  to  restore 
the  wine;  and,  after  some  delay,  they  returned  ''  not  near 
the  Quantity  that  was  taken "  and,  instead  of  Madeira, 
"no  better  than  mean  Fyall  [Fayal]."  A  revenue  em- 
ployee who  had  been  active  in  this  affair  went  to  Boston 
to  recuperate  from  his  injuries,  because,  as  he  earnestly 
avowed,  "  I  could  not  think  of  tarrying  among  a  sett  of 
People  under  my  present  circumstances  whose  greatest 
pleasure  would  be  to  have  an  oppo[rtunity]  of  burying 
me.';  ' 

piven  from  the  plantation  provinces  came  echoes  of  in- 
dignation against  the  officiousness  of  customs  officers  and 
the  new  powers  of  the  vice-admiralty  courts.  Infringe- 
ments of  the  acts  of  trade  were  comparatively  rare  in  that 
portion  of  British  America;  and  it  was  the  boast  of  the 

'  Arnold,  Rhode  Island,  vol.  ii,  p.  294. 

'^  R.  I.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  593-596;  Gammel,  W.,  Samuel  Ward  {2 
Lihr.  Am.  Biog.,  vol.  ix),  pp.  288-290.  For  instances  of  forcible  im- 
portation in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  vide  Weeden,  Ec.  and 
Soc.  Hisf.  of  New  Engl.,  vol.  ii,  p.  762. 

^4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  X,  pp.  611-617. 


I02  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

wealthy  Charleston  merchant  and  factor,  Henry  Laurens, 
that  he  had  never  intentionally  violated  them.  Yet,  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  Customs  Board  to  secure  higher  admin- 
istrative efficiency,  the  customs  officers  at  Charleston  were 
unprincipled  and  corrupt;  and  the  merchants  of  that  port 
were  subjected  to  petty  tyrannies,  from  which  the  local 
vice-admiralty  court  afforded  no  relief.  Laurens  himself 
was  put  to  great  expense  through  the  seizure  on  technical 
charges  in  1767  and  1768,  of  three  of  his  vessels,  two  of 
which  were  eventually  released.  A  conservative  from 
temperamental  as  well  as  business  reasons,  his  emotions 
were,  for  the  first  time,  deeply  stirred  to  the  defense  of 
so-called  American  liberties,  and  in  1769  he  produced  an 
able  controversial  pamphlet  setting  forth  his  new  views 
under  the  title,  Some  General  Observations  on  Americcm 
custom  house  officers  and  Courts  of  Vice- Admiralty. 
Thoroughly  academic  and  unemotional  as  he  had  been  in 
his  objections  to  the  Stamp  Act,  he  could  write  in  1769  to 
a  London  friend  that  "  the  enormous  created  powers  vested 
in  an  American  Court  of  Vice-Admiralty  threatens  future 
generations  in  America  with  a  curse  tenfold  worse  than 
the  Stamp  Act."  ' 

<^The  most  important  work  performed  by  the  Customs 
Brard  was  the  breaking  of  the  power  of  the  smugglers  at 
Boston.  This  w^s  accomplished  only  through  a  resort  to 
extreme  measuresA^  In  the  years  immediateh'  following 
1766,  there  were  a  number  of  cases  at  Boston  of  forcible 
landing  of  contraband  goods,  of  rescue  of  lawful  seizures, 
and  of  mobbing  of  revenue  officers."  John  Robinson,  one 
of  the  Customs  Board,  in  his  testimony  before  the  Privy 

'  For  this  incident,  vide  Wallace.  Henry  Laurens,  pp.  137-149.  Vide 
also  Prov.  Gas.,  Oct.  3,  1767,  July  23,  1768. 

^  Acts  of  the  Privy  Council,  Colonial,  vol.  v,  no.  155.  P'ide  also 
Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  188. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  IO3 

Council  in  1770,  stated  that  he  hesitated  to  say  that  "  the 
Disturbances  may  be  properly  called  Riots,  as  the  Rioters 
appear  to  be  under  Discipline." 

Reeling  unable  to  cope  with  the  situation,  the  Customs 
Board,  in  February,  1768,  asked  Commodore  Hood  at 
Halifax  for  a  public  vessel  to  protect  them  in  the  discharge 
of  their  functions.  >  "  We  have  every  reason,"  they  said, 
"  to  expect  that  we  shall  find  it  impracticable  to  enforce 
the  execution  of  the  revenue  laws,  until  the  hand  of  gov- 
ernment is  properly  strengthened.  At  present,  there  is  not 
a  ship-of-war  in  the  province,  nor  a  company  of  soldiers 
nearer  than  New  York."  ^  <^n  answer  to  repeated  requests, 
the  man-of-war  Rcmmey  was  stationed  at  Boston  a  few 
months  later.  The  board  now  pressed  for  additional  ships 
and  for  the  presence  of  troops,  but  their  requests  failed  of 
effect. 

Affairs  came  to  a  crisis  a  few  months  later,  when  John 
Hancock's  sloop  -Liberty  arrived  in  port  from  Madeira  with 
a  quantity  of  wine.  A  tidesman  went  on  board  and  ob- 
jected to  the  landing  of  any  wine  until  entry  was  made  at 
the  custom  house;  whereupon  the  fellow  was  heaved  into 
the  cabin  and  kept  there  while  the  cargo  was  expeditiously 
removed.  On  June  10,  about  a  month  later,  the  vessel  was 
seized  by  order  of  the  Customs  Board.  <;A  crowd  assembled 
and,  in  great  uneasiness,  watched  the  removal  of  the  vessel 
to  within  gun-range  of  the  Romncy.  Soon  they  lost  their 
restraint;  and,  in  the  rioting  that  ensued,  the  custom-house 
officers  were  assaulted  and  the  houses  of  several  of  them 
pelted,  and  other  damage  done.'  ^ 

'  Bancroft,  G.,  History  of  United  States  (Boston,  1876),  vol.  iv,  p.  75. 

^  The  Liberty  was  condemned  by  the  vice-admiralty  court.  Bos. 
Chron.,  June  13,  1768;  Sears,  L.,  John  Hancock  (Boston,  1912),  pp.  lio- 
114;  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  p.  156;  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay, 


I04  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Alleging  helplessness,  the  Customs  Board  retired  to  Castle 
William  and  again  renewed  their  demand  for  troops.  This 
time  they  had  made  good  their  case;  two  regiments  arrived 
on  the  scene  about  four  months  after  the  riot,  and  the 
customs  commissioners  resumed  their  headquarters  at 
Boston.  From  this  time  forward  Boston  lost  its  importance 
as  a  smuggling  port;  and  the  great_ceiiters  of  contraband 
trade  became  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  with  Newport 
as^  center  of  minor  importance.  ^> 

^O^owever  justfiable  the  action  may  have  appeared  from 
an  administrative  point  of  view,  the  British  government 
made  a  bad  tactical  error  in  sending  soldiers  to  Boston. 
The  statesmanlike  policy  of  maintaining  a  standing  army 
to  protect  the  empire  from  foreign  enemies  had  degenerated 
into  an  employment  of  the  troops  as  a  military  police  to 
enforce  hated  laws  on  the  people  then^elves.  The  worst 
fears  of  the  radicals  were  vindicated.^^/Their  efforts  and 
those  of  the  merchants  were  used  for  the  next  two  years 
to  procure  the  removal  of  the  troops.  Sporadic  outbreaks 
of  resistance  to  customs  officials  continued  to  occur^ 


< 


Of  greater  interest  and  significance  in  the  controversy 


vol.  iii,  pp.  189-194.  For  Hancock's  letters  ordering  the  wine,  vide 
Brown,  op.  cit.,  pp.  149-150. 

After  referring  to  the  Liberty  affair,  John  Adams  writes  in  his 
diary :  "  Mr.  Hancock  was  prosecuted  upon  a  great  number  of  libels, 
for  penalties  upon  acts  of  Parliament,  amounting  to  ninety  or  an  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  sterling.  He  thought  fit  to  engage  me  as  his 
counsel  and  advocate,  and  a  painful  drudgery  I  had  of  his  cause.  There 
were  few  days  through  the  whole  winter,  Avhen  I  was  not  summoned 
to  attend  the  Court  of  Admiralty.  .  .  .  this  odious  cause  was  sus- 
pended at  last  only  by  the  battle  of  Lexington,  which  put  an  end,  for- 
ever, to  all  such  prosecutions."     Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  215-216. 

^Letters  of  Thomas  Hutchinson;  Hosmer,  Hutchinson,  p.  432;  Mass. 
Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  p.  317.     Vide  also  infra,  chap.  vi. 

^  E.  g.,  vide  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  26. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  105 

with  Parliament  wasJthe  endeavor  of  the  merchants  to  con- 
trol the  economic  life  of  their  communities  and  by  use  of 
the  boycott  to  starv^  Great  Britain  into  a  surrender  of  her 
trade  restrictions.  '  piiis  movement  of  a  class-conscious 
group  within  the  leading  provinces  constituted  the  one  tre 
mendous  fact  of  the  revolutionary  movement  prior  to  the 
assembling  of  the  First  Continental  Congress/V^triving  for 
reform,  not  rebelliqii,  the  merchants,  nevertheless,  through 
tK^  gffeLfTif-ffieir  agitation  and  organized  activity  upon 
the  non-mercantile  population,  found  themselves,  when 
they  wished  to  terminate  their  propaganda,  confronted 
with  forces  too  powerful  for  them  to  controlO> 

The  efforts  at  combination  from  1767  to  1770  suffered 
from  all  the  disadvantages  which  inhered  in  an  attempt  to 
bind  together  thirteen  disparate  communities.  The  story 
of  these  endeavors  is  a  long  and  devious  one,  bringing  to 
light  many  instances  of  discord  and  harmony,  of  good 
faith   and   broken  pledges,    which   should   go   far  toward  ^ 

revealing  the  secret  springs  of  human  action. 

(The  trading  communities   of   New   England   and   New 
York  took  the  lead  in  the  movement,  Philadelphia  hanging        ' 
back  at  first:  and  it  was  not  until  1769  that  the  co-operation   ^^ 
of  the  plantation  provinces  was  secureO    In  the  trading      \ 
centers  of  the  commercial  provinces   several   stages  were 
clearly  apparent  in  the  development  of  organized  efforts 
for  boycott  against  Great   Britain?^he  initial   movement 
promoted  by  town  meetings  in  New  England  for  the  pur- 
pose of   effecting  a  ,-npn-consumption   of   certain   imports 
from  Britain;  second,-Ahe  efforts,  futile  in  their  outcome, 
for  a  non-importation  league  of  the  merchants  of  the  great 
northern  seaports  Ahird.  the  period  in  which  the  merchants 
of   the  great  towns   entered   into 
ments  independently  of  each  other' 
but  without  success,  of  efforts  for  a  non-importation  league 


i^on-importation   agree- 
r^iourth,  the  renewal, 


I06  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

of  merchants  along  more  comprehensive  hnes;  fifth,  the 
accession  of  the  minor  northern  provinces  to  non-importa- 
tipn. 

llThe  first  phase  of  the  movement  originated  in  the  fall 
of  1767  in  New  Englancflwhere  evidences  of  hard  times 
had  at  once  become  apparent,  and  had  for  its  primary  ob- 
ject a  reduction  of  the  cost  of  living,*  (The  efforts  took 
the  form  of  agreements  not  to  purchase  a  stated  list  of 
imported  wares,  and  to  lend  all  encouragement  to  domestic 
manufactures,  in  contrast  to  Stamp  Act  times,  these 
agreements  were  not  in  first  instance  drawn  up  by  import- 
ing merchants,  but  were  adopted  by  town  meetings  and 
circulated  among  the  people  for  general  signing.  It  is 
clear  that  the  framers  of  the  agreements  were  not  greatly 
concerned  with  the  abstract  question  of  the  parliamentary 
right  of  taxation*  since  no  town  meeting  placed  more  than 
one  or  two  dutied  articles  on  the  blacklist.  Indeed,  the 
great  merchant,  John  Hancock,  ordered  a  consignment  of 
dutied  glass  for  his  personal  use  as  late  as  December  17, 
1767,  apparently  without  compunction." 

The  movement  received  its  first  impulse  from  the  action 

1  References  to  hard  times  were  plentiful  in  New  England  after 
the  passage  of  the  Townshend  Acts.  The  Newport  merchant,  George 
Rome,  wrote  to  England  in  December,  1767,  that  creditors  at  home 
would  lose  £50,000  in  Rhode  Island,  owing  to  "  deluges  of  bankrupt- 
cies." Bos.  Eve.  Post,  June  28,  1773.  "  A  Friend  to  the  Colony,"  writ- 
ing in  the  Prov.  Gas.,  Mch.  26,  1768,  painted  a  doleful  picture  of  the 
trade  situation  of  Rhode  Island.  The  Mass.  Post-Boy  of  Oct.  26,  1767 
spoke  of  "  the  present  alarming  Scarcity  of  Money  and  consequent 
Stagnation  of  Trade "  and  "  the  almost  universally  increasing  Com- 
plaints of  Debt  &  Poverty."  It  later  adopted  the  popular  slogan, 
"  Save  your  Money  and  Save  your  Country."  The  A'.  H.  Gas.,  in  its 
issue  of  Nov.  13,  1767,  referred  to  "this  time  of  great  distress  and 
grievous  complaining  among  tradesmen  about  the  dullness  of  trade 
and  uncommon  scarcity  of  money." 

*  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  p.  151. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  107 

of  a  Boston  town  meeting  on  October  28,  1767..-VA  form 
of  subscription  was  adopted,  which  attributed  the  prevail- 
ing commercial  depression  to  the  high  war  taxes,  the  loss 
of  trade  in  late  years  and  the  many  burdensome  trade  re- 
strictions, the  money  stringency  and  the  unfavorable 
balance  of  trade  with  England.  The  agreement  pledged 
all  who  should  sign  it  to  the  patronage  of  colonial  manu- 
factures, especially  those  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  the  ob- 
servance of  frugal  regulations  about  mourning;  further, 
it  bound  all  subscribers  not  to  purchase,  after  December 
31,  1767,  a  long  list  of  imported  articles.^  In  view  of  the 
Townshend  duties,  it  was  agreed  that  the  colonial  manu- 
facture of  glass  and  paper  should  receive  particular  en- 
couragement. Considerable  enthusiasm  was  aroused  when 
townsmen  present  exhibited  samples  of  starch,  glue  and 
hair  powder,  and  of  snuff  equal  to  Kippen's  best,  all  of 
which  had  been  made  in  Boston.  A  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  the  feasibility  of  reviving  the  manu- 
facture of  linen  in  order  to  employ  the  poor  of  the  town. 
Copies  of  the  Boston  agreement  were  ordered  to  be  sent  to 
every  town  in  the  province  and  to  the  chief  towns  of  the 
other  provinces.  At  Boston,  the  subscription  rolls  filled 
rapidly. 

'  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Oct.  26^  Nov.  2,  23,  1767;  also  Boston  Town  Records, 
17 58-1769,  pp.  220-225.  This  list  was. typical  of  a  great  many  others, 
and  was  as  follows:  "Loaf  Sugar,  Cordage,  Anchors,  Coaches,  Chaises 
and  Carriages  of  all  Sorts,  Horse  Furniture,  Men  and  Womens  Hatts, 
Mens  and  Womens  Apparel  ready  made.  Household  Furniture,  Gloves, 
Mens  and  Womens  Shoes,  Sole  Leather,  Sheathing  and  Deck  Nails, 
Gold  and  Silver  and  Thread  Lace  of  all  Sorts,  Gold  and  Silver  But- 
tons, Wrought  Plate  of  all  Sorts,  Diamond,  Stone  and  Paste  Ware, 
Snuff,  Mustard,  Clocks  and  Watches,  Silversmiths  and  Jewellers  Ware, 
Broad  Cloaths  that  cost  above  los.  per  Yard,  Muffs  Furrs  and  Tippets, 
and  all  Sorts  of  Millenary  Ware,  Starch,  Womens  and  Childrens  Stays, 
Fire  Engines,  China  Ware,  Silk  and  Cotton  Velvets,  Gauze,  Pewterers 
liollow  Ware,  Linseed  Oyl,  Glue,  Lawns,  Cambricks,  Silks  of  all  Kinds 
for  Garments,  Malt  Liquors  &  Cheese." 


/ 


I08  '^HE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


i 


4^ 


^he  Boston  agreement  faithfully  reflected  the  general 
opinion  of  the  community  in  favor  of  a  retrenchment  of 
expenses.  Nevertheless,  it  did  not  escape  without  criticismA 
,/f  There  were  those  who  objected  to  the  boycott  of  only  cer- 
tain enumerated  articles  and  declared  that  all  British  im- 
ports should  be  included;  furthermore,  they  urged  that  all 
persons  who  failed  to  sign  the  agreement  should  be  boy- 
cotted. Others  felt  that  at  least  all  the  dutied  articles 
should  have  been  placed  on  the  blacklist.^  ^The  chief  ob- 
jection was  the  failure  of  the  agreement  to  provide  against 
the  drinking  of  tea,  one  of  the  dutied  articles.  JV 

Efforts  were  at  once  made  to  remedy  this  oversight. 
The  newspapers  teemed  with  articles  urging  the  ladies, 
in  spite  of  the  silence  of  the  agreement,  to  abandon  the  use 
of  "  the  most  luxurious  and  enervating  article  of  Bohea 
Tea,  in  which  so  large  a  sum  is  spent  annually  by  the 
American  colonists."  ^  A  clever  bit  of  verse,  which  went 
the  rounds  of  the  press  of  the  commercial  provinces,  con- 
cluded with  this  appeal  to  the  ladies  : 

Throw  aside  your  Bohea  and  your  Green  Hyson  Tea, 

And  all  things  with  a  new  fashion  duty; 

Procure  a  good  store  of  the  choice  Labradore, 

For  there'll  soon  be  enough  here  to  suit  ye; 

These  do  without  fear,  and  to  all  you'll  appear 

Fair,  charming,  true,  lovely  and  clever ; 

Though  the  times  remain  darkish,  young  men  may  be  sparkish, 

And  love  you  much  stronger  than  ever.^ 

"  A  Countn-man  "  wrote  piteously  that  in  recent  years  he 
had  found  the  expenses  of  living  higher  than  ever  before; 

^  "  Pelopidas  "  and  "  A  Friend  to  Britain  and  her  Colonies,"  quoted 
by  A'^.  Y.  Journ.,  Nov.  19,  Dec.  3,  1767. 

^  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Nov.  16,  1767.  Vide  quotations  from  the  Boston 
press  in  the  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Nov.  12,  26,  Dec.  10. 

»5oj.  Post-Boy,  Nov.  16,  1767;  A'".  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Nov.  26; 
Pa.  Journ.,  Dec.  3. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


109 


for  "  there  is  my  daughters  Jemima  and  Keziah,  two  hearty 
trollups  as  any  in  town,  forenoon  and  afternoon  eat  almost 
a  peck  of  toast  and  butter  wnth  their  Tea;  and  the}^  have 
learned  me  and  their  mother  to  join  them."  On  the  auth- 
ority of  his  doctor  he  held  tea  responsible  for  many  modern 
complaints;  "  for  you  never  used  to  hear  so  much  of  such 
strange  disorders  as  people  have  now  a  days,  tremblings, 
appoplexies,  consumptions  and  I  don't  know  what  all."  ^ 

Early  in  December,  1767,  a  large  number  of  the  ladies 
agreed  that  the}'  would  use  no  foreign  teas  for  a  year 
beginning  on  the  tenth  of  that  month. ^  One  tart  dissent 
was  entered  to  these  proceedings.  The  fair  writer  expati- 
ated on  the  depravity  resulting  from  "  hard  drinking,"  and 
then  asked  "  where  the  Reformation  ought  to  begin,  whether 
among  the  Gentlemen  at  Taverns  &  Coffee  Houses  where 
they  drink  scarcely  any  Thing  but  Wine  and  Punch;  or 
among  the  Ladies  at  those  useful  Boards  of  Trade  called 
Tea  Tables,  where  it  don't  cost  half  so  much  to  entertain 
half  a  dozen  Ladies  a  whole  Afternoon,  as  it  does  to  entertain 
one  Gentlemen  only  one  Evening  at  a  Tavern."  ^ 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  town  to  propose  meas- 
ures for  employing  the  poor  reported  in  due  time  in  favor 
of  the  establishment  of  the  manufacture  of  duck  (or  sail) 
cloth,  hitherto  imported  from  Russia.  This  material  could 
be  made  from  either  flax  or  hemp  and  thus  held  an  advan- 
tage over  linen.  The  committee  proposed  that  the  project 
be  financed  by  public  subscription ;  and  they  were  author- 
ized by  the  town  to  go  ahead.  Four  months  later,  they  had 
succeeded  in  collecting  less  than  one-half  of  the  amount 

^  Bos.  Gas.,  Aug.  29,   1768.     "  Trahlur  "  in  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Nov.  30, 
1767,  held  the  same  view  of  modern  ailments. 

■^  .V.  }'.  Journ.,  Dec.  14,  1767. 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Dec.  28,  1767;  also  Newport  Merc,  Dec.  14. 


no  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

that  was  necessary  for  making  a  beginning.     Further  efforts 
were  unproductive;  and  the  project  was  given  up/ 

Reports  filled  the  newspapers  with  reference  to  the  in- 
crease and  perfection  of  local  manufactures.  From  grind- 
stones and  precious  stones  tO'  shoes  and  shalloons,  the  gamut 
of  praise  was  run.  The  man  who  made  the  paper  which  the 
Boston  Gazette  was  printed  on  stated  that  the  people  of  the 
province  were  so  intent  on  saving  rags  for  his  mills  that  he 
now  received  more  tons  than  he  formerly  did  hundreds.^ 
The  theses  of  the  graduates  at  Harvard  were  printed  "  on 
fine  white  Demy  Paper  manufactured  at  Milton  "  and  the 
men  received  their  degrees  garbed  in  homespun.^  By  1770 
a  leading  newspaper  of  the  town  declared  that:  "  The  ex- 
traordinary and  ver}'  impoverishing  custom  of  wearing 
deep  Mourning  at  Funerals  is  now  almost  entirely  laid 
aside  in  the  Province."  ■* 

^he  Boston  plan  spread  rapidly  to  other  towns  of  the 
provinc^  By  the  middle  of  January,  1768.  the  names  of 
twenty-four  towns  had  been  published,  which  had  voted  ta 
conform  to  the  Boston  agreement.^  Salem  alone  was  re- 
corded as  having  refused  to  co-operate.®  /At  a  town  meet- 
ing on  December  22,  1767,  Boston  had  unanimously  voted 
instructions  to  her  representatives  in  the  General  Court, 
recommending  bounties  for  the  establishment  of  domestic 

^  Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1758-1769),  pp.  226-227,  230-232,  239-240,  249-250. 
^  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Jan.  18,  1768;  Bos.  Gas.,  Jan.  25. 
*-V.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  4,  1768. 

*  Bos.  Gac,  May  7,  1770. 

^  Abington,  Ashburnham,  Bolton,  Braintree,  Brookneld,  Charlestown, 
Dartmouth,  Dedham,  Eastham,  Grafton,  Harwich,  Holleston,  Kingston, 
Leicester,  Lexington,  Middleborough,  Milton,  Mendon,  Newton,  Ply- 
mouth, Roxbury,  Sandwich,  Spencer,  Truro.  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Nov.  23, 
Dec.  14,  1767;  Bos.  Gaz.,  Jan.  11,  Mch.  28,  1768;  .V,  Y.  Journ.,  Dec.  3, 
24,  1767,  Jan.  28,  1768;  Prov.  Gas.,  Dec.  26,  1767. 

*  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Dec.  21,  1767. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  HI 

manufactures,  and  suggesting  a  petition  to  Parliament  for 
the  repeal  of  the  recent  duties/  On  February  ii,  1768,  the 
House  of  Representatives  adopted  the  famous  circular  letter 
to  the  other  assemblies  on  the  continent,  suggesting  concerted 
opposition  in  the  way  of  constitutional  discussions  and  peti- 
tions^ In  the  latter  days  of  the  month,  other  resolutions 
wefe  passed,  reciting  the  decay  of  trade  and  pledging  the 
support  of  all  the  members  against  the  use  of  foreign  super- 
fluities and  in  favor  of  Massachusetts  manufactures.^  The 
House  also  sent  resolutions  of  protest  against  the  Town- 
shend  Acts  to  the  king. 

Two  other  New  England  provinces  followed  in  the  wake' 
of  Boston.  The  letter  of  the  Boston  selectmen,  announcing" 
the  non-consumption  agreement  and  suggesting  like  meas- 
ures, convinced  towns  outside  of  Massachusetts  of  the  \vis- 
dom  of  pursuing  a  similar  course.  ^l^The  people  of  Rhode 
Island  were  in  particularly  hard  straits,  due  to  the  dimin- 
ished profits  of  rum  production  and  the  falling-off  of  the  X 
carrying  trade. ^  Providence,  the  second  port  of  Rhode 
Island,  was  the  first  town  to  act.  At  a  town  meeting  on 
December  2,  1767,  largely  attended  by  merchants  and  per- 
sons of  wealth,  a  more  stringent  agreement  was  adopted 
than  that  of  Boston.  >  In  place  of  a  resolution  of  mere  non- 
consumption,  it  was  agreed  not  to  import,  after  January  i, 
1768.  a  list  of  articles  which  exceeded  the  Boston  list  by 
twelve  items.  The  agreement  contained  a  pledge  against 
the  use  of  any  teas,  chinav/are  or  spices,  a  resolution  against 
expensive  m.ouming,  and  one  favorable  to  wool ,  and  flax 
production.     The  compact  was  to  be  enforced  by  a  dis- 

^  Bos.  Post-Boy,  Dec.  28,  1767;  also  Bos.  Toii'n  Recs.  {17^8-1769),  pp. 
227-230. 

^  These  resolutions  passed  by  a  vote  of  eighty-one  to  one.    Bos.  Gas.,. 
Feb.  29,  1768;  also  A''.  Y.  Journ.,  Mch.  10. 
'  E.  g.,  vide  "  A  Friend  to  this  Colony,"  Proz:  Gaz.,  Nov.  14,  1767. 


A 


112  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

countenancing,  "  in  the  most  effectual  but  decent  and  lawful 
Manner,"  of  any  person  who  failed  to^  sign  or  conform  to 
these  regulations.  A  few  weeks  later,  the  subscription  rolls 
were  reported  tO'  be  filling  rapidly/ 

Two  days  after  the  action  of  Providence,  a  town  meeting 
at  Newport  adopted  an  agreement  of  non-consumption, 
modeled  very  closely  on  that  of  Boston,  save  that  it  was  to 
become  effective  one  month  later.  Mourning  resolutions 
were  also  adopted.'  In  the  following  two  months,  the 
Newport  agreement  was  concurred  in  by  other  Rhode  Island 
towns,  including  Middletown,  Little  Compton  and  Tiverton.^ 

"  Liber  Nov-Anglus,"  writing  in  the  Connecticut  Jour- 
tial,  December  25,  1767,  was  one  of  the  first  to  urge  the 
Boston  agreemerit  on  the  people  of  Connecticut.  The 
larger  towns  soon  began  to  take  action,  Norwich  leading 
the  way.  In  the  subsequent  weeks,  non-consumption  agree- 
m'ents,  patterned  more  or  less  after  the  Boston  plan,  were 
adopted  by  town  meetings  at  New  London'.  Windham, 
Mansfield  and  New  Haven.*  In  both  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut,  the  newspapers  gave  abundant  evidence  of  the 
wide  drinking  of  "  Labradore  or  Hyperion  tea,"  and  of 
increased  activity  in  the  production  of  homespun.^  The 
Nezvport  Mercury  inserted,  free  of  charge,  all  advertisements 
of  Rhode  Island  textiles. 

)wing  perhaps  to  the  fact  that  the  movement  in  New 
land  was  engineered  by  town  meetings,  it  did  not  spread 

^  Prov.  Gas.,  Nov.  14,  28,  Dec.  5,  12,  1767;  Newport  Merc,  Dec.  14. 

^Newport  Mere.,  Nov.  30,  Dec.  7,  1767;  Prov.  Gas.,  Dec.  12. 

'  Newport  Merc.,  Jan.  25,  Feb.  29,  1768. 

^  Prov.  Gas..  Dec.  26,  1767;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  11,  }.[ch.  17,  1768; 
Bos.  Gas.,  Feb.  15,  Alch.  28;  Newport  Merc.,  Feb.  15. 

^Newport  Merc,  Dec.  7,  1767.  Jan.  11,  18,  25,  1768;  New  London 
Gas.,  Dec.  18,  1767;  .V.  H.  Gas.,  Mch.  11,  1768;  .V.  Y.  Journ.,  Tan.  28, 
Feb.  18. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


113 


in  its  present  fomi  to  any  of  the  other  commercial  provinces,  | 
where  those  potent  agencies  of  local  opinion  did  not  exis^^ 
The  interest  of  the  people  at  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
was  aroused,  however.  "  A  Tradesman,"  writing  in  the 
Nezu  York  Journal,  December  17,  1767,  asked  pertinently 
why  the  example  of  Boston  had  not  been  followed  by  New 
York.  "Are  our  Circumstances  altered?"  he  asked.  "Is 
Money  grown  more  plenty?  Have  our  Tradesmen  full 
Employment?  Are  we  more  Frugal?  Is  Grain  cheaper? 
Are  our  Importations  less?"  On  December  29,  1767,  a; 
public  meeting  was  held,  and  a  committee  w^as  appointed  to 
report  on  a  plan  for  retrenching  expenses  and  for  employing 
local  tradesmen  and  the  deserving  poor.  At  a  meeting  on 
February  2,  1768,  the  report  of  the  committee  was  approved, 
and  instructions  were  given  for  carrying  it  into  execution.^ 
Contemporary  records  do  not  reveal  the  nature  of  the  New 
York  plan;  but  it  is  probable  that  it  did  not  include  an 
agreement  of  non-consumption.  A  public  meeting,  held  at 
Philadelphia  to  discuss  the  action  of  Boston,  did  not  ven- 
ture further  than  to  vote  an  expression  of  sympathy  for  that 
city." 

By  the  beginning  of  spring,  1768,  it  was  apparent  to  all  ^ 
interested  that  the  sumptuary  regulations  of  the  New  Eng- 
land towns  would  fail  to  secure  relief  from  the  hard  times. 
The  non-mercantile  elements  of  the  population  were  not,  as 
yet,  sufficiently  co-ordinated  or  self-conscious  to  secure 
obedience  to  their  mandates;  and  h;he  merchants  hesitated 
to  lend  their  support  until  they  had  assurance  that  their 
brethren    down   the   coast   would   unite   in    the    measure.^ 

'  .V.  ]'.  Jounu,  Jan.  23,  28,  Feb.  4,  1768. 
^Dickinson,  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  i,  pp.  -{09-410. 

^  "  Few  of  the  trading  part  have  subscribed,"  wrote  Andrew  Eliot, 
of  Boston,  with  reference  to  the  agreement  on  Dec.  10,  1767.    4  M.  H.  S. 


114  '^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Without  such  an  understanding,  they  felt  that  their  own 
self-denial  would  have  no  other  result  than  to  deliver  up 
their  customers  to  their  competitors  at  New  York  and 
Philadelphia.  'Meantime,  importations  continued  as  before, 
though  in  somewhat  lessened  degree. ' 
/  ^^h^  basis  for  an  appeal  for  a  non-importation  plan  of  a 

J  wider  geographical   scope  was  sullied  by   "  The  Letters 

from  a  Fanner  in  Pennsylvania," 'which  were  published 
serially  in  the  newspapers  of  the  various  provinces  during 
December,  1767,  and  through  the  first  two  months  of 
1768.^  'The  author]  in  language  more  legalistic  than  bucolic, 
Ireminded  the  Americans  of  the  success  of  the  legislative 
petitions  and  non-importation  agreements  in  effecting  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  exhorted  them  to  revive  those 
agencies  of  protest*  These  articles  were  read  everywhere 
and  helped  to  prepare  the  publ^  mind  for  the  mercantile 
op2psition  of  the  next  few  years.\ 

yThe  Boston  merchants  nowv^ok  active  steps  tO'  bring 
/  about  a  non-importation  league  of  the  leading  portsJ  /The 

K  body  of  the  merchants  were  moved  by  the  necessity  of  com- 

mercial reform;  but  individuals  were  not  unmindful  of  the 
fact  that  a  suspension  of  trade  would  enable  them  to  clean 
out  their  old  stock  at  monopoly  prices^  At  the  instigation 
of  Captain  Daniel  Malcom,  a  notorious  smuggler,  and  a  few 
others,  the  merchants  and  traders  gathered  at  the  British 
Coffee-House  on  the  evening  of  March  i,  1768  "  to  consult 
on  proper  Measures  relative  to  our  Trade  under  its  present 
Embarrassments."  ^     At  this  and  several  subsequent  meet- 

Colls.,  vol.  iv.  p.  418.  The  leaders  of  the  non-consumption  movement 
consist  "chiefly  of  persons  who  have  no  property  to  lose,"  declared  "A 
Trader  "  in  the  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Oct.  12,  1767. 

*  The  text  has  been  reprinted  in  Dickinson,  JVritings  (Ford),  vol.  i, 
pp.  305-406. 

^  Bos.  Posi-Boy,  Sept.  2S,  1767. 

^  Bos.  Gas.,  Feb.  29,  1768.    "This  may  be  said  to  be  the  first  Move- 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  II5 

ings,^n  agreement  was  drawn  up  and  adopted,  which 
pledged  all  merchants  who  should  sign  it, 'to  refrain  for 
one  year  from  importing  merchandise  from  Great  Britain 
(save  such  as  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  fisheries)  in 
case  the  merchants  at  New  York  and  Philadelphia  should 
take  like  action?!  This  conditional  agreement  was  circulated 
about  Boston  and  was  almost  universally  signed  by  the 
merchants^  The  merchants  of  Salem,  Marblehead  and 
Gloucester  concurred  in  the  same  measure.^ 

Events  now  awaited  the  action  of  the  merchants iat  New 
Yorkland  Philadelphia.  At  the  former  port,  several  meet- 
ings of  the  merchants  and  traders  were  held  early  in  April 
to  consider  the  matter.  vAbout  the  middle  of  the  month,  >'■ 
an  agreement  was  adopted  to  import  no  goods  shipped  from- 
Great  Britainl after  October  i,  1768  until  the  Townshend 
duties  should  be  repealed,  (provided  that  Boston  shoiild 
continue  and  Philadelphia  adopt  similar  measures^by  the 
second  Tuesday  of  June.^ 

ment  of  the  Merchants  against  the  Acts  of  Parliament,"  Governor  Ber- 
nard told  Hillsborough  in  a  letter  of  Mch.  21,  176S.  Bos.  Eve.  Post, 
Aug.  21,  1769. 

^  The  chief  facts  concerning  this  agreement  of  Boston  and  the  other 
towTis  may  be  found  in :  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  350-351 ;  M.  H. 
S.  Mss.,  91  L,  p.  27,  70-741  Bos.  Gaz.,  Feb.  29,  Mch.  7,  1768;  Bernard 
to  Hillsborough,  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Aug.  21,  1769.  The  merchants  of 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  refused  to  accede  to  this  agreement.  Brit.  Papers 
("Sparks  Mss."},  vol.  i,  pp.  7-8. 

^  -V.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  Apr.  18,  1768;  N.  Y.  Journ..  June  28,  1770.  The 
terms  of  this  agreement  had  not  been  formulated  without  considerable 
difference  of  opinion.  Some  of  the  more  radical  merchants  wished  to 
include  the  Quartering  Act  with  the  Townshend  duties  as  the  object 
of  the  non-importation.  But  this  proposal  was  rejected  by  the  major- 
ity. Others  insisted  that  the  Boston  plan  of  immediate  non-im.portation 
should  be  followed,  for  the  six  months'  interval  would  enable  unscru- 
pulous men  to  enlarge  their  orders  and  defeat  the  purpose  of  the 
agreement.  This  again  met  with  little  favor.  Article  by  "G"  in  ibid., 
Apr.  21,  1768. 


s. 


iT5  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

vThe  agreement  was  signed  by  every  merchant  and  trader 
in  New  York,  save  two  or  three  unimportant  ones,  witiiin 
less  than  two  days.  Another  outcome  of  the  conferences 
of  the  merchants  was  the  formation  of  the  New  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  en- 
couraging commerce  and  industry  and  of  procuring  better 
trade  laws/  The  Committee  of  Merchants  at  Boston  were 
informed  of  the  New  York  agreement;  and  an  answer  was 
returned  that,  although  the  Boston  merchants  considered  the 
New  Yorkers  mistaken  in  not  stopping  trade  immediately, 
nevertheless,  for  the  sake  of  unanimit}',  they  would  accept 
tlieir  proposal.  V 

yTn  Philadelphia,  the  movement  for  co-operation^  with 
Boston  and  New  York  was  devoid  of  any  real  vitality(>not- 
withstanding  that  the  great  proponent  of  non-importation, 
John  Dickinson,  was  an  influential  citizen  of  that  place. 
The  merchants  as  a  whole  did  not  yet  suffer  from  the  trade 
embarrassments,  which  the  sea  ports  farther  north  were 
experiencing  or  which  they  themselves  had  experienced 
during  the  critical  years  1764-1766.^  >" A.  B."  represented 
the  merchants'  point  of  view  in  a  set  of  queries  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Chronicle,  July  25,  1768.  The  anon^-mous 
author,  probably  Joseph  Galloway,  questioned  the  wisdom 
of  severing  commercial  connections  with  England  except  in 

^  Bos.  Ncivs-Lettcr.  Jan.  5,  1769;  Memorial  History  of  the  City  of 
New  York  (Wilson,  J.  G.,  ed.),  vol.  iv,  p.  516. 

'^  Letter  of  N.  Y.  Merchants'  Committee  to  Philadelphia  Committee, 
A''.  Y.  Journ.,  June  28,  1770.  The  Boston  meeting  to  consider  the  New 
York  proposal  was  probably  held  on  May  2.    Bos.  Gas.,  May  2,  1768. 

'  Dickinson's  "  Farmer's  Letters,"  in  contrast  to  his  pamphlet  against 
"The  Late  Regulations"  of  1764-1765,  made  no  claim  to  severe  times; 
and  only  a  few  articles  in  the  newspapers  spoke  of  business  stagnation 
and  currency  stringency  or  advocated  local  manufactures,  thus  "  Philo- 
Patriae "  in  Pa.  Chron.,  Dec.  2,  1767;  "Lover  of  Pennsylvania"  in 
ibid.,  Jan.  4,  11,  1768;  "Freeborn  American"  and  "Monitor"  in  Pa. 
Gaz.,  Feb.  9,  Apr.  14,  1768. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


117 


cases  of  dire  necessity,  for  he  declared  that  all  the  wool  in 
North  America  would  not  supply  the  colonists  with  hats  and 
stockings  alone.  Among  his  queries  were  these:  Had  the 
merchants  in  their  letters  to  England  done  all  they  could  to 
induce  the  mercantile  houses  there  to  agitate  for  repeal? 
If  the  merchants  should  take  action,  ought  not  non-impor- 
tation to  be  restricted  to  dutied  imports  alone?  Was  the 
provincial  legislature  not  the  proper  body  to  take  cognizance 
of  the  situation,  and  would  anarchy  not  ensue  from  the 
adoption  of  other  measures?  Even  if  it  were  prudent  for 
New  England  merchants  to  resort  to  non-importation,  might 
it  not  be  imprudent  for  Pennsylvania  and  other  provinces 
where  the  circumsta.nces  differed  widely?  Was  it  consis- 
tent with  the  rights  of  mankind  for  one  province  to  insist 
that  another  should  adopt  its  measures,  more  especially  for 
a  people  who  called  themselves  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  ?/^ 

**  A  Chester  County  Farmer  "  claimed  that  the  farmers 
would  be  slow  to  be  inveigled  into  local  manufacturing 
again  after  their  experience  during  Stamp  Act  days,  for 
the  "  ill-timed  Resolution,"  made  at  the  time  of  the  repeal, 
to  cast  aside  all  homespun,  had  dealt  a  staggering  blow 
to  the  people  who  had  invested  their  capital  in  pastures, 
sheep,  looms,  spinners,  etc.^  The  situation  was  further 
complicated  by  the  long-standing  local  controversy  over 
the  desirability  of  continuing  the  proprietary  government.^ 
A  meeting  of  the  merchants  and  traders  of  Philadelphia 
w^as  held  on  ]\Iarch  26,  1768,  to  act  upon  the  proposal  of 
the  Boston  merchants.     The  Boston  letter  w^as  not  favcr- 

^  Pa.  Gaz.,  June  16,  1768.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  pseudonym  was 
another  one  of  Joseph  Galloway's,  according  to  Ford  in  his  edition  of 
Dickinson's  Writings,  vol.  i,  p.  435. 

^  "  A.  L."  in  Pa.  Chron.,  May  30,  1768.  In  this  controversy  Galloway 
and  Dickinson  were  the  local  leaders  of  the  royal  and  proprietary  par- 
ties respectively. 


IlS'  T^E  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ably  received  and,  after  a  heated  debate,  the  meeting  ad- 
journed without  taking  action/ 

A)n  April  25,  ,"john  Dickinson  addressed  a  merchants' 
meeting  in  order  to  induce  favorable  action.  •'  He  first  dwelt 
eloquently  on  the  effort  of  Great  Britain  to  check  the  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  development  of  the  colonies.     He 
cited  the  prohibition  of  steel  furnaces  and  slitting  mills, 
the  acts  against  the  exportation  of  hats  and  woolens,  the 
requirement  of   exporting  logwood  by   way   of   England, 
and  the  heavy  restraints  on  the  wine  trade.     He  maintained 
that  the  acts  of  trade  compelled  the  colonists  to  pay  twenty 
to  forty  per  cent  higher  for  goods  from  England  than  they 
could  be  gotten  from  other  countries.    "^He  then  reviewed 
.the  Quartering  Act  and  the  Townshend  Acts  and  showed 
ithat  their  tendency  was  to  diminish  the  control  of  the  people 
jover  their  provincial  governments,  i.  c.   their  "  Liberty.'!^ 
|l"  As  Liberty  is  the  great  and  only_Security_of^  Property ; 
|as  the  Security  of  Property  is  the  chief  Spur  to  Industry," 
i'he  urged  the  merchants  to  join  \yithB^  New  York, 

'•to   forego  a  present  advantage,  and  to  stop  importation 
from  Britain  until  the  unconstitutional  acts  were  repealed .0^ 

Remaining  unconvinced  by  these  appeals  to  an  alleged 
self-interest,  the  merchants  were  fiercely  assailed  from 
another  angle.  Under  the  signature  of  "  A  Freeborn 
American."  Charles  Thomson,  himself  not  disinterested  in 
his  cause  as  an  iron  manufacturer  and  distiller,  quoted  the 

^  Dickinson,  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  i,  p.  410;  Pa.  Gas.,  Mch.  31,  1768. 

^  Pa.  Joiirn.,  Apr.  28,  1768;  also  Dickinson,  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  i, 
pp.  411-417.  On  the  same  day  as  Dickinson's  speech,  the  Pennsylvania 
Chronicle  contained  an  able  article  entitled,  "Causes,  of  the  American 
Discontents  before  1768."  written  by  Benjamin  Franklin  under  the 
signature  "  F.  and  S."  This  w^as  a  trenchant  analysis  covering  many 
of  the  same  points,  and  had  been  published  originally  for  English  con- 
sumption in  the  London  Chronicle,  Jan.  7,  1768.  Franklin,  Writings 
(Smyth),  vol.  V,  pp.  78-89. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  HO 

words  of  the  "  Pennsylvania  Farmer  "  to  the  effect  that : 
"  A  people  is  travelling  fast  to  destruction,  when  indi- 
viduals consider  their  interests  as  distinct  from  those  of 
the  public."  The  merchants  were  told  that  the  eyes  of 
their  customers,  as  well  as  of  God,  had  been  on  them  ex'-~ 
pectantly  for  a  long  time;  and  that  eagerness  for  a  few 
pence  or  pounds  should  not  deter  them  from  joining 
strength  with  Boston  and  New  York/  A  contributor  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  June  2  urged  that  the  people 
of  the  city  take  affairs  into  their  own  hands  and  agree 
to  buy  only  American  manufactures.  A  few  days  later, 
the  merchants  received  a  letter  from  the  Committee  of 
^Merchants  at  New  York,  reminding  them  that,  unless  they 
adopted  non-importation  by  June  14,  the  merchants  of 
New  York  and  Boston  would  be  absolved  from  their  agree- 
ments.^ ^>5"he  Philadelphia  merchants  remained  unmoved; 
the  appointed  day  arrived  and  passed;  and  the  project  of 
a  non-importation  league  of  the  great  trading  towns 
collapsed.x^ 

The  delinquency  of  the  merchants  occasioned  a  most 
virulent  attack  on  their  motives  4iy  John  Dickinson  in  the 
form  of  a  broadside,  entitled  "  A  Copy  of  a  Letter  from 
a  Gentleman  of  Virginia  to  a  Merchant  in  Philadelphia.'- 
The  manuscript  copy,  which  the  printer  used  in  getting 
up  the  broadside,  was  in  the  handwriting  of  a  third  person, 
making  it  evident,  so  the  editor  of  Dickinson's  Writings 
thinks,  that  Dickinson  desired  to  conceal  his  connection 
with  it.  iThe  writer  did  not  mince  words  in  charging  that 
the  merchants  were  actuated  by  self-interest>  During  the 
Stamp  Act,  when  their  "  Patriotism  and  private  Interests  " 

^  Pa.  Gaz.,  May  12,   1768.     Ford,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  435,   ascribes  the 
pseudonym  to  Thomson. 

*  Letter  of  June  6,  1768;  A'.  Y.  Jount.,  June  28,  1770. 


Y 


i 


1 20  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

were  intimately  connected,  4;lie  merchants  had  entered  into  a 
non-importation  agreement,  he  said.  But  they  had  been  able 
to  shift  the  burden  of  the  Townshend  taxes  on  their  cus- 
tomers, and  the  abstract  question  of  right  did  not  concern 
them.  CThe  principle  involved  they  considered  of  slight 
importance  as  compared  with  their  personal  comfort  and 
profit.  ^^ 

\^)it  failure  to  bring  about  a  non-importation  union  placed 
the  Boston  merchants  in  the  dilemma  of  either  resigning 
themselves  nervelessly  to  business  depression  or /pursuing 
a  vigorous  course  independently  lof  the  other  great  ports'^ 
After  one  or  two  meetings  for  discussion,  1  the  merchants 
chose  the  latter  alternativelin  an  agreement  drawn  up  Au- 
gust I,  1768."  The  preamble  attributed  the  commercial 
distress  to"  money  stringency — a  condition  growing  daily 
more  severe  because  of  "  the  large  Sums  collected  by  the 
Officers  of  the  Customs  for  Duties  on  Goods  imported," 
to  restrictions  on  trade  laid  by  the  recent  acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, to  the  heavy  war  taxes,  and  to  bad  success  in  the 
cod  and  whale  fisheries.  <^11  subscribers  of  the  agreement 
pledged  themselves  to  send  no  further  orders  for  fall  goods, 
to  discontinue  all  importations  from  Great  Britain  for 
one  year  beginning  January  i,  1769,"  except  coal,  wool- 
cards,  duck,  cardwire,  shot,  and  four  or  five  articles  neces- 
sary for  carrying  on  the  fisheries,  and  to  cease  the  im- 
portation of  tea,  glass,  paper  and  painters'  colors  until  the 
duties  on  them  should  be  removed.  ^Several  days   later, 

^  Writings,  vol.  i,  pp.  435-445- 

'Mass.  Gaa.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  17,  1769;  Bos.  Gac.  July  25,  Aug. 
I,  8,  IS,  1768;  Bos.  Post-Boy,  May  8,  1769;  Bos.  Ere.  Post,  May  8,  1769; 
Hosmer,  Hutchinson,  p.  432;  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  p.  163. 

^  At  a  meeting  on  Oct.  17,  1769,  the  merchants  removed  the  one-year 
limitation  and  made  the  period  of  operation  contingent  upon  the  repeal 
of  the  Townshend  duties.    Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  9,  17,  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  12 1 

Hutchinson  informed  an  English  friend  that  all  the  mer- 
chants in  town,  save  only  sixteen,  had  signed  the  agreement. 
The  example  of  the  Boston  merchants  stimulated  the 
other  trading  towns  of  the  province  to  emulation.  Within 
the  next  few  months,  agreements  were  signed  by  the  mer- 
chants of  Salem,  Plymouth,  Cape  Ann  and  Nantucket. 
Marblehead,  somewhat  belated,  joined  in  October  of  the 
following  year.^  New  vigor  was  also  injected  into  the 
movement  for  the  non-consumption  of  tea.  The  Boston 
Gazette  reported  "  from  the  best  Authority  "  that  fifteen 
hundred  families  of  Boston  had  relinquished  the  use  of 
tea,  and  that  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  Charlestown,  Lex- 
ington, Dedham,  Weymouth  and  Hingham,  as  well  as  the 
students  at  Harvard,  had  done  likewise.^  The  Boston 
town  meeting  revived  its  efforts  to  provide  work  for  the 
poor  of  the  town,  "  whose  Numbers  and  distresses  are 
dayly  increasing  by  the  loss  of  its  Trade  &  Commerce." 
Rejecting  the  earlier  plan  of  a  popular  subscription,  the 
town,  on  Alarch  13,  1769,  voted  a  subsidy  out  of  town  funds 
for  a  free  spinning  school,  and  placed  it  under  charge  of 
William  Molineux.  The  venture  proved  sufficiently  suc- 
cessful for  the  town  meeting,  three  years  later,  to  vote 
thanks  to  the  manager  for  the  faithful  performance  of  his 
duties.^ 

rYvithin  a  year  of  the  date  of  the  merchants'  agreem.ent, 
news  reached  Boston  that  the  ministry  was  prepared  to 
yield  up  all  the  Townshend  duties  except  the  tax  on  tea ;  ■* 
and  the  merchants  were  forced  to  consider  whether  it  was 

^  Essex  Ghz.,  Sept.  6,  1768;  N.  Y.  Jouni.,  June  22,  1769;  Mass.  Gas. 
&  News-Letter,  Nov.  2,  1769. 

*  Issues  of  Oct.  24,  1768;  Mch.  27,  1769. 

'Bos.  Town  Recs.  (1738-1769),  pp.  273-277;  ibid.  (1770-1777),  p.  73. 

*  Hillsborough's  circular  letter  ofAIay  13.   1769.     A''.    Y.  Col.  Docs., 
vol.  viii,  pp.  164-165. 


122  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

worth  while  to  continue  the  controversy  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. On  July  26,  1769,  they  voted  unanimously 
that  such  a  partial  repeal  would  by  no  means  relieve  the 
trade  situation  and  was  designed,  to  prevent  the  establish- 
ment of  colonial  manufactures^  At  this  meeting  and  a 
succeeding  one  of  August  11,  they  materially  strengthened 
the  enforcement  feature  of  the  non-importation  agree- 
ment by  providing  for  a  boycott  of  all  vessels  and  all  mer- 
chants dealing  in  merchandise  proscribed  by  the  agree- 
ment. At  the  same  time,  the  list  of  articles  which  might 
be  imported  was  somewhat  extended.^  They  agreed, 
further,  on  October  17,  that,  if  any  British  merchandise 
should  be  consigned  to  them  on  commission,  they  would 
either  refuse  to  receive  it  or  ship  it  back  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity." A  paper  was  also  circulated  among  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Boston,  pledging  them  to  buy  no  goods  imported 
contrary  to  the  merchants'  agreement,  and  to  support  the 
merchants  in  any  further  efforts  to  render  the  measures 
e^ectual.^ 
^' /^leantime,  domestic  inanufacturing  entered  a  new  stage : 
^pruning  was  taken  up  by  women's  circles  in  churches  all 
^  over  New  England  and  thus  popularized  as  a  social  diver- 
sion. vThe  atrabilious  Peter  Oliver  declared :  "  The  female 
spinriers  kept  on  spinning  six  Days  of  the  Week;  and  on  the 
seventh,  the  Parsons  took  their  turns  and  spun  out  their 
prayers  and  sermons  to  a  long  thread  of  Politics."  *    From 

^  Mass.  Ga:^.,  July  31,  1769;  Bos.  Gas.,  Aug.  14.  In  a  meeting  on 
April  27,  the  merchants  had  already  resolved  to  buy  of  no  one  articles 
which  were  imported,  contrary  to  the  agreement,  filom  Great  Britain  or 
any  province.    Ibid.,  May  i. 

*  Mass.  Gas.  &  News  Letter,  Nov.  9,  17,  1769. 

'  .1/.  H.  S.  Ms.:  151,  I,  15.  With  a  similar  purpose  in  view,  the 
vendue-masters  and  brokers  signed  an  agreement  not  to  handle  any 
goods  debarred  by  the  merchants'  agreement.    Bos.  Gas.,  Aug.  21,  17-59. 

*  Brit.  Mus.,  Egerton  Mss.,  no.  2671   (L.  C.  Transcripts). 


\ 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  1 23 

Janiiar}^  to  September,  1769,  twenty-eight  spinning  bees 
were  noted  in  the  newspapers ;  and  this  probably  represented 
a  fraction  of  the  entire  number  held.  Many  instances  of  in- 
dividual industry  were  cited ;  and  the  little  town  of  Middle- 
town,  ]\Iass.,  established  a  record  of  weaving  20,522  yards 
of  cloth  in  the  year  1769,  an  average  oi  more  than  forty 
yards  for  every  adult  and  child  in  the  population/  Money 
prizes  were  occasionally  offered  for  the  making  of  textiles; 
and  efforts  were  even  made  to  foster  silk  culture  in  this  way." 
All  this  pother  resulted  in  some  progress  toward  a  greater 
independence  of  imported  textiles.^ 

.<Ts^evertheless,  it  is  clear  that  the  people  were  interested 
only  in  tiding  over  a  difficult  period  and  not  in  laying  the 
foundations  of  permanent  industries^^>It  was  an  exceptional 
case  when  men,  like  Upham  and  his  associates  at  Brookfield, 
Mass.,  "  erected  a  Building  50  Feet  in  Length  and  two 
Stories  high,  for  a  Manufactory^  House,"  and  installed 
looms  and  collected  workmen  for  the  weaving  of  woolens.' 
Manufacturing  enterprises,  which  would,  in  all  probability, 
collapse  the  moment  trade  with  England  was  renewed, 
did  not  appeal  as  attractive  investments  to  men  of  capital; 
and  as  a  class  they  refused  to  lend  support. '/ The  news- 

^  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Mch.  12,  1770. 

'  Bos.  Gaz.,  Apr.  10,  Oct.  16,  1769;  May  i,  1770. 

3  Note,  for  example,  the  articles  offered  for  sale  by  John  Gore,  Jr.,  in 
the  Boston  Gazette,  June  12,  1769:  "  North- American  Manufactures, 
viz  Blue,  black,  claret  coloured  and  mix'd  Cloths,  Whilton  mix'd  Cotton 
and  Linnen,  masqueraded  ditto,  superfine  mix'd  double  Camblet  for 
Mens  Summer  or  Womens  Winter  Ware,  half-j^ard  and  3  qr  Diaper, 
fine  7-8th  Nutfield  Linnen,.  fine  Hatfield  Thread,  Mens  ribb'd  worsted 
Hose,  white  cotton  and  linnen  Tow-cloth,  Lynn  Shoes,  Pole  Combs, 
Cards,  &c.  N.  B.  All  sorts  of  Mens  and  Womens  Ware  manufactured 
in  New  England,  taken  in  Exchange  for  English  Goods." 

*  Bos.  Gaz.,  Oct.  3,  1768.  For  a  similar  enterprise,  vide  the  advertise- 
ment of  Thomas  Alewse  in  Bos.  Post-Boy.  Sept.  11,  1769. 

*  £.  g.,  vide  article  by  "A.  Z."  and  an  advertisement  of  Charles  [Mil- 
ler in  Bos.  Gaz.,  Feb.  20,  1769. 


> 


~4- 


124  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

papers  of  New  England  and  elsewhere  made  a  great  fuss 
over  local  manufactures ;  and  it  was  no  doubt  the  propagan- 
dist character  of  such  notices  that  caused  many  Americans 
to  refer  to  them  as  "  great  puffs  "  and  "  newspaper  manu- 
factures." ^ 

■Not  many  days  elapsed  after  the  first  merchants'  agree- 
ment of  Boston  before  the,  New  York  merchants  decided 
to  take  a  similar  stand.'  On  August  27,  1768,  an  agreement 
was  signed  by  nearly  all  the  merchants  ar.d  traders,  which 
was  more  stringent  in  its  terms  than  the  Boston  agreement.j> 
The  subscribers  were  obligated  to  countermand  all  orders 
sent  to  England  after  August  15  and  to  cease  the  importation 
of  goods  shipped  from  Great  Britain  after  November  i. 
until  the  Townshend  duties  should  be  repealed."  Some 
concession  was  made  to  the  criticism  that  the  project  was 
promoted  chiefly  by  smuggling  merchants,  by  providing  that 
no  goods  should  be  imported  from  Hamburg  and  Holland, 
directly  or  indirectly,  other  than  had  already  been  ordered, 
except  tiles  and  bricks."  Any  goods  sent  over  coiitrar}'  to 
the  agreement  were  to  be  stored  in  a  public  warehouse  until 

Ithe  Townshend  duties  were  repealed.  ^Finally,  it  was  pro- 
vided that  any  subscribers  who  violated  the  agreement 
should  be  deemed  "  Enemies  to  their  Country. '\ 

A  few  days  later,  the  tradesmen  of  the  city  signed  an 
agreement  to  withhold  patronage  from  all  merchants,  who 
refused  to  sign  or  to  obey  the  merchants'  agreement,  and 

^Franklin,  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  v,  p.  116;  "True  Patriot"  in  Bos. 
Eve.  Post,  Xov.  22,  1767. 

^N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Mch.  13,  1769;  also  A'.  7.  Joiirn.,  Sept.  8,  1768. 
Excepted  from  this  general  prohibition  were:  coal,  salt,  sail  cloth, 
woolcards,  card-wire,  grindstones,  chalk,  lead,  tin,  sheet-copper  and 
German  steel. 

'  This  list  of  exceptions  was  later  extended  to  include  corn-fans,  mill- 
stones, and  all  those  articles  which  were  permitted  to  be  imported  from 
Great  Britain. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  12^ 

frcin  any  European  mercantile  houses  that  imported  con- 
trary to  the  agreement/  The  importers  at  Albany  con- 
curred in  the  New  York  merchants'  agreement,  not,  how- 
ever, without  protest  from  some  of  the  merchants  on  the 
score  that  the  importation  of  goods  for  the  Indian  trade 
should  be  continued."  Seme  of  the  small  inland  towns  re- 
solved to  buy  no  British  or  Scotch  goods.  ^  On  April  lo, 
1769,  the  provincial  House  of  Representatives,  on  motion 
of  Philip  Livingston,  an  eminent  merchant  of  the  city, 
passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  merchants  of  the  city  and 
province  for  their  patriotic  conduct  in  declining  importation 
from  Great  Britain."  Andrew  Oliver,  of  Boston,  wrote 
from  New  York  on  August  12,  1769,  that,  although  his 
business  there  led  him  to  associate  v/ith  the  best  citizens, 
they  universally  approved  of  the  non-importation  combina- 
tion, an  attitude  which  appeared  to  him  "  little  less  than  as- 
suming a  negative  on  all  acts  of  parliament  which  they  do 
not  like.''  ^ 

^n  September  i,  1768,  the  Committee  of  Merchants  of 
New  York  sent  a  copy  of  their  agreement  to  the  Philadel- 
1  phia  merchants,  explaining  that  it  was  "  widely  different  " 
j  from  the  Boston  plan,  then  in  operation,  in  that  its  bind- 
ing force  extended  to  the  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties, 
and  trusting  that  they  would  now  feel  free  to  enter  into  a 
similar  compact.**     Newspaper  contributors  at  Philadelphia 

1  A"".  Y.  Jotirn.,  Sept.  15,  1768.     This  agreement  was  dated  September  5. 
'  A^.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Aug.  14,  1769. 
^-V.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  July  31,  1769. 
*  X.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  194-195. 
^  X.   Y.  Jonrn.,  July  29,  1773. 

"  Ms.  in  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  The  original  Boston 
agreement  was  to  last  for  one  year  beginning  January  i,  1769.  This 
clause  was  changed  to  correspond  with  the  New  York  provision  on 
October  17,  1769. 


126  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

were  again  fired  by  the  example  of  the  trading  towns  to  the 
north;  and  "Tradesman,"  "Agricola"  and  others  lent  their 
persuasive  pens  to  pleas  for  non-importation  and  non-con- 
■,,    ^6'^  sumption    regulations/      Letters    from    correspondents    in 
\VL-  London  urged  these  steps,  also.^ 

r  X'^  /  N^he  great  Quaker  merchants  dominated  the  situation ; 

and  they  were  determined  not  to  resort  to  trade  suspension 
until  all  ordinary  means  of  obtaining  redress  had  been  ex- 
hausted. In  accord  with  their  wishes,  the  Pennsylvania  As- 
sembly, on  September  22,  1768,  sent  petitions  to  the  king 
and  to  the  houses  of  Parliament,  praying  for  a  repeal  of 
the  Townshend  Act^i.  They  based  their  plea  on  their  claim 
to  constitutional  exemption  from  parliamentary  taxation; 
it  was  not  deemed  necessary  to  include  arguments  against 
i  the  economic  expediency  of  the  British  measure^^ 
ii^t-The  merchants  continued  to  betray  no  outwara  signs  of 
activity.  Their  apparent  callousness  provoked  a  bitter 
article  in  the  New  York  Journal,  October  10,  1768,  signed 
by  "  A  North  American,"  charging  a  few  drygoods  mer- 
chants of  Philadelphia  with  preventing  an  agreement  there. 
Shall  a  few  selfish,  dastardly  merchants,  it  was  asked,  be 
permitted  to  defy  the  desires  of  the  vast  majority  of  the 
people  and  defeat  a  great  public  purpose?  Under  sting  of 
this  attack,  the  merchants  began  to  grow  restive.  An  in- 
spired contributor,  "  Philadelphus,"  disclosed  to  the  public 
the  true  condition  of  affairs.^  As  soon  as  they  had  been 
informed  of  the  Boston  agreement,  the  Philadelphia  mer- 
chants had  appointed  a  committee  to  canvass  a  similar  pro- 
posal.    The  committee  labored  in  vain  to  obtain  a  general 

concurrence,  and  then  concentrated  its  efforts  on  enlisting 
« 

^  Pa.  Chron.,   Oct.  10,  Nov.  28,  1768;  Pa.  Jount.,   Jan.  26,  1769. 

'  Pa.  Journ.,  Jan.  26,  Apr.  6,  13,  1769. 

^  Pa.  Gas.,  Oct.  20,  1768. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


127 


the  support  of  eight  or  ten  mercantile  firms,  whose  backing 
would  give  prestige  to  the  project.  None  of  these  firms 
would  go  further  than  to  recommend  a  non-importation  of 
dutied  articles  and  certain  luxuries;  and  this  proposal  was 
rejected  by  the  committee  as  unsatisfactory.  On  September 
22,  the  committee  had  called  a  general  meeting  of  merchants 
and  traders ;  but,  as  not  one-fourth  of  the  drygoods  mer- 
chants attended,  this  was  deemed  conclusive  that  the  ma- 
jority disapproved  of  a  general  non-importation. 
^!^he  disposition  of  the  merchants  and  of  conservative- 
thinking  people  generally  was  to  await  the  result  of  the 
legislative  petitions.^  But,  within  two  weeks  after  "  Phila- 
delphus "  spoke,  the  merchants  were  moved  to  send  a 
memorial  of  their  own  to  the  merchants  and  manufacturers 
of  Great  Britain,  representing  the  deplorable  situation  of 
trade.  >  The  idea  was  to  prod  the  British  business  interests 
to  bring  pressure  to  bear  upon  Parliament.  The  memorial 
was  sent  on  November  i ,  1 768 ;  it  was  conservative  in  tone. 
The  British  merchants  and  manufacturers  were  asked  to 
solicit  a  repeal  of  the  statutes  imposing  the  anti-commercial 
and  unconstitutional  Townshend  duties  and  to  obtain 
"  further  relief  from  the  other  Burthens  which  the  Ameri- 
can trade  has  long  laboured  under."  /It  was  affirmed  as 
"  a  Solemn  Truth  "  that,  if  the  various  discouragements 
to  trade  continued  unabated,  the  Americans  must,  "  from 
necessity  if  not  from  Motives  of  Interest,''  establish  their 
own  manufactures  and  curtail  importations.  ,^he  memorial 
further  stated  that  many  of  the  present  trade  restrictions 
had  been  complained  of  by  the  Philadelphia  merchants  in 
their  petition  of  November,  1765.  The  chief  grievances, 
other  than  the  Townshend  duties,  were  declared  to  be :  the 

^  Letter  of  Philadelphia  Merchants'  Committee  to  London  Merchants' 
Committee,  London  Chroii.,  June  ic,  1769;  also  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxvii, 
pp.  84-87. 


128  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

prohibition  of  paper  money  as  a  legal  tender;  the  heavy 
duty  on  ^Madeira  wine  which  barred  it  as  an  article  of  ex- 
change with  England;  the  unnecessar}^  trouble  and  expense 
incurred  by  the  roundabout  shipment  of  Portuguese  wines 
and  fruit  to  America  through  England;  the  prohibition 
against  exporting  American  bar  iron  to  continental  Europe ; 
and  the  regulation  which  classified  all  sugars  imported  from 
the  American  continent  into  England  as  foreign  and  thus 
deprived  the  colonists  of  an  advantageous  remittance^ 

The  transmission  of  the  memorial  was  followed  by  a 
lull  in  public  interest  in  the  non-importation  question,  for 
the  signers  of  the  memorial  pledged  themselves  to  adopt 
non-importation  in  the  spring,  provided  their  appeal  met 
with  no  success."  Early  in  February.  1769,  various  fire 
companies  in  the  city  adopted  resolutions  to  abstain  from 
buying  mutton,  as  a  measure  to  aid  the  woolen  manufac- 
tures ;  and  a  number  of  citizens  asserted  their  independence 
of  English  fashions  by  agreeing  to  wear  leather  jackets 
thereafter.^ 

Events  now  forced  the  commercial  class  to  take  more 
decisive  action.  Several  merchants  were  planning  to  send 
orders  for  fall  goods  by  a  vessel  which  departed  for  England 
in  the  middle  of  February.  As  no  informxation  had  yet 
been  received  of  remedial  measures  by  Parliament,  the  body 
of  merchants  apprehended  that  these  orders  might  seriously 
complicate  the  non-importation  agreement,  to  which  they 
were  conditionally  pledged  for  the  spring.  Meeting  to- 
gether on  February  6,  they  resolved  that  all  orders,  already 
sent  for  fall  goods,  should  be  cancelled  unless  the  goods  be 

^  Pub.  Rec.  Office:  C.  O.  5,  no.  114  (L.  C.  Transcripts) ,  pp.  161-169. 

^  Papers  of  the  Merchants  of  Philadelphia  {"Sparks  Mss."  vol.  Ixii. 
sub-vol.  vii),  pp.  1-2. 

^  Pa.  Joitrn.,  Feb.  9,  16,  Mch.  16,  1769;  Pa.  Chron..  Feb.  20. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  1 29 

shipped  before  April  i,  and  that  no  further  orders  be  sent 
before  March  10,  by  which  time  they  expected  to  learn 
definitely  of  the  outcome  of  their  memorial/  News  soon 
arrived  that  the  hopes  of  the  petitioners  had  been  misplaced. 
The  London  merchants  professed  to  be  willing  to  use  their, 
influence  for  repeal ;  but,  on  the  advice  of  Burke  and  other 
of  their  friends  in  Parliament,  they  had  been  convinced  that 
it  was  an  unpropitious  time  to  press  the  matter.  They  re- 
gretfully informed  the  Philadelphia  merchants  of  their 
determination." 

SrMarch  the  tenth  arrived  and  the  merchants  took  the  final 
step.  Justifying  their  action  as  a  consequence  of  heavy  „ 
debts  and  the  ruinous  effects  of  the  revenue  acts,  and  as  '^^ '« iJl^i 
-the  only  means ^^  stimulating  their  British  creditors  to 
^^activity  for  repeal,  they  (adopted  an  agreement  to  import  no 
goods  shipped  after  April  i  from  Great  Britain,  until  the 
Townshend  duties  should  be  repealed,  except  twenty-two 
articles  useful  for  local  manufacturing,  ship-ballast  and 
medicinal  and  educational  purposesT^Vith  the  apparent 
purpose  of  denying  special  advantages  to  smugglers, v^ese 
conditions  were  extended  to  include  imports  from  the  rest 
of  Europe,^except  linens  and  provisions  directly  from  Ire- 
land. The  subscribers  of  the  agreement  were  pledged  to 
buy  no  goods  imported  contrary  to  the  agreement,  and  to 
discountenance  "  by  all  lawful  and  prudent  measures  "  any 
person  who  defied  the  agreement.  The  agreement  was  to 
continue  until  the  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties  or  until 

^  Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  1-2.  For  a  countermanding  order 
of  Stephen  Collins  under  this  agreement,  vide  his  Letter-Book  1760-1773 
(L.  C.  Mss.)  under  date  of  February  6. 

''Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  355-356;  Papers  of  Phila.  Mer- 
chants, p.  7.  For  an  explanation  of  their  failure  to  urge  the  petition 
in  the  subsequent  months,  vide  Franklin  Papers,  Misc.  (L.  C.  Mss.), 
vol.  i,  no.  71 ;  and  Pa.  Journ,,  May  4,  1769. 


V 


I30 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


a  general  meeting  of  the  subscribers  should  determine  other- 
wise/ The  paper  was  circulated  among  the  merchants 
and  traders  of  the  city  and  "  a  very  great  majority  "  signed 
in  the  course  of  the  next  few  weeks.  At  a  later  meeting, 
it  was  determined  that  goods  arriving  at  Philadelphia  con- 
trary to  the  agreement  should  not  be  stored  but  be  sent  back. 
The  principle  of  the  boycott  was  further  extended  i^any 
person  violating  the  word  or  spirit  of  the  agreement  should 
be  stigmatized  "  an  Enemy  of  the  Liberties  of  America," 
and  it  was  held  prwer  that  his  name  should  be  published 
in  the  newspapersJ  ^ 

^o  conspicuous  activity  in  local  manufacturing  was  dis- 
played until  the  high  price  of  imported  goods,  produced  by 
the  non-importation  regulation,  caused  people  to  turn  their 
energies  in  that  direction.^  Even  then  their  activity  was 
not  comparable  with  that  of  the  provinces  farther  north.)  A 
report  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  showed  that, 
in  the  little  town  of  Lancaster,  fifty  looms  and  seven  hundred 
spinning-wheels  were  in  constant  use.  In  the  twelvemonth 
beginning  Alay  i,  1769,  the  net  output  was  close  to  thirty- 
five  thousand  yards.*  An  effort  was  made  to  foster  the 
production  of  domestic  silks.  In  1769  sixty-four  families 
raised  silkworms,  many  of  them  raising  from  ten  to  twenty 
thousand ;  but  little  benefit  came  of  the  venture  because  of 
the  inexpertness  of  the  people  in  reeling  the  silk.  To  over- 
come this  obstacle,  a  number  of  citizens  subscribed  £250,  in 
March,  1770,  for  the  erection  of  a  filature.     Some  of  the 

^Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  2-5,  19-21.  For  orders  for  all  kinds 
of  goods,  to  be  shipped  when  the  revenue  acts  were  repealed,  vide 
Stephen  Collins's  Letter-Book  1760-1773,  under  the  dates  Mch.  12,  15, 
Sept.  22,  Oct.  14,  Nov.  6,  25,  Dec.  11,  12,  1769;  Apr.  7,  1770. 

*  August  2,  1769.    Pa.  Gaz.,  Aug.  3,  1769. 

^  Pa.  Chron.,  July  24,  1769.     Article  by  "A  Merchant." 

*  Pa.  Gaz.,  June  14,  1770;  also  Gentleman's  Magazine  (1770),  p.  348. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  I3I 

leading  merchants  of  the  city  were  chosen  on  the  board  of 
managers;  and  by  November,  1771,  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  pounds  of  raw  silk  had  been  exported  to  England.  The 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Silk  Culture  offered  annual 
premiums  for  silk  production  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war.^ 

y  the  spring  of  1769,  the  three  great  ports  had  finally 
uni^d    in   non-importation   measures   against   the   mother    . 
country,  Philadelphia  acting  tardily  about  six  months  later    '. 
than  the  merchants  of  Boston  and  New  York.     'This  con- 
summation soon  prompted  the   progressive  merchants   of 
Boston  to  urge  on  their  brethren  more  radical  measures  for 
trade  redemptionJl,^  The  Townshend  revenue  acts,  against 
which  all  the  existing  agreements  were  directed,  represented 
only  one  source  of  mercantile  distress.     The  wine  duties       ^   , 
and  the  revised  duty  on  molasses  drew   from  them  con-        /v 
siderably  more  cash  than  the  imposts  of  1767,"  and  violated       '' 
as  seriously  the  new  American  notion  of  the  unconstitu- 
tional character  of  revenue  tariffs.    "The  New  Englanders 
realized  that  the  mere  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties  would 
not  restore  their  prosperityTland,  despite  the  fact  that  they  \ 
had  failed  to  denominate  the  earlier  taxes  as  unconstitutional 
in  their  petition  of  January,  1767,  they  now  decided  to  take 
an  advanced  stand  in  conformity  with  the  recent  develop- 
ments in  colonial  theory.    An  a  letter  of  September  2,  1769,"^  ^jL 
Tthey  pressed  the  merchants'of  Philadelphia  to  extend  their 
agreement  to  comprehend  the  repeal  of  _all  revenue  acts7  ■ 

^  Pa.  Gac,  Mch.  15,  22,  1770,  and  passim  to  1775;  Franklin  Bicenten- 
nial Celebration,  vol.  ii,  p.  126;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxvi,  pp.  304-305. 

-  For  all  the  colonies,  the  Townshend  duties  on  tea,  etc.,  amounted  to 
£17,912  in  the  period  from  September  8,  1767  to  January  3,  1770.  In 
the  same  length  of  time,  the  wine  duties  (6  George  II  and  4  George 
III)  amounted  to  £20,130,  and  the  molasses  duty  (6  George  III)  to 
£22,652.     Channing,  History  of  U.  S.,  vol.  iii,  p.  90  n. 


\ 


132  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

including  the  molasses  and  wine  duties;  and  they  revised 
their  own  agreement  on  October  17  to  incorporate  the  new 
demands.  V  A  letter  of  October  25  carried  the  news  of  the 
new  agreement  to  Philadelphia,  with  an  urgent  plea  for 
similar  action  there.  It  was  probably  not  a  coincidence  that 
John  Hancock  was  in  Philadelphia  at  this  time  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  visiting  the  author  of  the  "  Farmer's  Let- 
ters," who  was  also  the  great  advocate  of  non-importation 
in  that  city."  If  his  visit  had  a  political  motive,  his  mission 
was  a  failure. 

Tu  reply  to  the  Boston  letters,'the  Committee  of  Merchants 
at  Philadelphialadmitted  "  that  the  acts  of  the  4th  and  6th 
George  3rd,  being  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a 
revenue  and  containing  many  grievous  and  unreasonable 
burdens  upon  trade,  are  ...  as  exceptionable  as "  the 
Townshend  duties;  and  they  agreed  "  that  the  design  of  the 
Merchants  through  the  continent  was  not  only  to  procure  a 
repeal  of  any  Single  Act  but  to  give  weight  to  the  petitions 
...  of  their  representatives  in  Assembly  met  against  the 
Parliament's  claim  to  tax  the  Colonies  and  to  prevent  any 
future  attempts  of  like  Nature,  that  a  precedent  admitted 
will  operate  against  us,  and  that  an  acquiescence  under  the 
acts  of  the  4th  and  6th,  even  though  that  of  the  7th  of 
George  3d  should  be  repealed,  will  be  establishing  a  pre- 
cedent." Nevertheless,  they  declared  that,  as  this  con- 
sideration ''  has  unfortunately  been  so  long  neglected,  our 
Merchants  are  extremely  averse  to  making  it  now  an  object 
of  their  non-importation  agreement."  They  refused, 
furthermore,  to  prohibit  all  incoming  trade  from  Great 
Britain,  for  the  reason  that  this  restriction  would  simply 

'  Mass.  Gaz.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  9,  17,  1769.     This  revised  agree- 
ment was  widely  signed,  only  ten  or  twelve  importers  declining. 

^  Letter  of  William  Palfrey;  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  47,  pp.  211-212. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  1 33 

divert  the  trade  to  laxer  ports.  They  did  (promise,*  how- 
ever, that  if  ParHament  failed  to  remove  aU  the  revenue 
acts,  they  would  then  be  ready  to  unite  with  the  other 
colonies  "  in  any  measure  that  may  be  thought  prudent  and 
practicable  for  obtaining  a  full  redress  of  all  grievances?'^ 
^he  Boston  proposal  met  with  the  same  sort  of  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  New  York  merchants  ;r  and,  at  a  meet- 
ing on  December  4,  the  Boston  merchants  reluctantly  yielded 
up  their  project  upon  a  plea  of  the  necessity  for  uniformity 
among  the  chief  trading  towns.  ^^J 

The  tangible  outcome  of  this  episode  was  the  publication, 
in  the  same  month,  by  the  merchants  of  Boston,  of  a  pamph- 
let, entitled  Observations  on  several  Acts  of  Parliai'nent 
passed  in  the  4th,  6th  and  yth  years  of  his  present  Majesty's- 
Reign;  and  also  on  the  Conduct  of  the  Officers  of  the  Ctts- 
toms  since  those  Acts  were  passed,  and  the  Board  of  Com- 
missioners appointed  to  reside  in  America.*  This  pamphlet 
was  the  clearest  and  strongest  statement  ever  formulated  of 
the  position  of  the  American  merchant  class,  particularly 
that  of  New  England.     In  the  compass  of  some  thirty  pages 

^  These  quotations  are  from  letters  of  Sept.  21  and  Nov.  11,  1769. 
Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  27-28,  37-42.  In  their  next  letter  to 
the  London  Committee  of  Merchants,  the  Philadelphia  Committee 
wrote :  Though  the  merchants  have  confined  their  agreements  to  the 
repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties,  "  yet  nothing  less  than  a  Repeal  of  all 
the  Revenue  Acts  and  putting  Things  on  the  same  Footing  they  were 
before  the  late  Innovations,  can  or  will  satisfy  the  Minds  of  the 
People."    London  Chron.,  Mch.  3,  1770;  also  Pa.  Gaz.,  May  10. 

^  Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  193. 

^  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvi,  pp.  411,  413;  Am.  Hist.  Rez:,  vol.  viii,  pp, 
313-314- 

*  Mss.  1745-1770  (in  M.  H.  S,),  p.  IS,  contain  the  letter  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Merchants  to  Dennys  de  Berdt,  explaining  the  inception  of 
the  pamphlet.  The  committee,  which  was  appointed  to  draft  the 
pamphlet,  was  composed  of  Arnold  Welles,  Henderson  Inches,  William 
Dennie,  William  Molineux  and  Isaac  Smith.    Mass.  Gas.,  July  31,  1769^ 


134 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


a  well-reasoned  argument,  buttressed  with  evidence,  was  pre- 
sented for  a  restoration  of  American  trade  to  the  footing  it 
had  enjoyed  before  the  passage  of  the  old  Molasses  Act  of 
1733.  This.steg^Jtwas  asserted,  would  unite  Great  Britain 
and  the  colonies  on  a  lastmg  foundation  and  eliminate  all 
clandestine  trade.  The  repeal  of  the  recent  Townshend 
duties  would  not  suffice;  for  the  colonies  must  again  enjoy 
the  free  importation  of  molasses,  sugars  and  Madeira  wine, 
and  must  obtain  the  right  of  a  free  and  direct  importation 
of  fruit,  wine  and  oil  from  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  acts 
of  Parliament  prior  to  1764  had  been  intended  merely  as 
regulations  of  trade  and,  in  one  instance,  a  duty  had  been 
placed  on  foreign  molasses  in  order  to  encourage  the  British 
West  Indies;  but  the  present  statute  could  not  be  so  con- 
strued, for  it  imposed  duties  on  all  molasses  and  expressly 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue.  According  to  the 
figures  cited  in  the  pamphlet,  the  various  restraints  on 
trade  with  the  foreign  West  Indies,  Africa,  Madeira  and 
Southern  Europe  had  rendered  unprofitable  the  employment 
of  four  hundred  vessels  in  the  fisheries,  and  of  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  vessels  in  the  lumber  and  provisions  trade 
to  the  West  Indies,  not  to  mention  the  decrease  in  the 
coasting-trade  and  other  channels  of  commerce.  The  ship- 
building industry  had  also  been  seriously  affected,  only  one 
hundred  vessels  being  built  annually  instead  of  three  hun- 
dred as  before  the  late  restrictions  on  trade.  In  closing-. 
a  representation  was  made  of  the  embarrassments  to  com- 
merce, due  to  the  unlimited  amount  of  red  tape  required 
for  trading  voyages,  and  to  the  excessive  power,  ofificious- 
ness  and  unlawful  conduct  of  the  customs  officers  and  the 
Customs  Board. 


<' 


iThe  non-importation  movement  ran  a  different  course  in 
the  plantation  provinces  from  that  in  the  commercial  prov- 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  13- 

inces,  due  to  the  characteristic  methods  of  doing  business 
in  each  section.  |^The  marketing  of  the  staples  of  the  South 
was  largely  in  the  hands  of  English  and  Scotch  merchants 
and  factors,  whose  business  had  been  very  little  affected  by 
the' parliamentary  duties  of  1766  and  1767.  The  planters 
constituted  the  chief  discontented  class,  because  of  their 
losing  struggle  to  pay  the  debts  they  owed  to  their  mercan- 
tile creditors^/ Animated  by  a  desire  to  curtail  living  ex- 
penses and  to  strike  at  their  creditors,  the  planters  assumed 
the  initiative  in  promoting  non-importation  associations, 
while  the  southern  trading  class  stood  aloof  or  were  ac- 
tively hostilel  These  circumstances  caused  the  non-impor- 
taticn  movement  to  assume  many  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  non-consumption  movement  that  had  been  promoted  by 
New  England  town  meetings  in  late  1767  and  early  1768. 
As  one  contemporary  said,  the  associations  of  the  planta- 
tion provinces,  besides  being  less  restrictive  than  the  north- 
ern agreements,  "  excluded  a  great  number  of  articles  which 
are  mere  luxuries,  confin'd  their  importations  from  Britain 
to  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  thereby  answered  the  purpose 
of  ^a  sumptuar}^  law."  ^ 

^/George  Washington,  of  Virginia,  spoke  of  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  local  trading  situation  when  he  transmitted  a  copy 
of  the  Philadelphia  non-importation  agreement,  in  a  letter 
of  April  5,  1769,  to  his  neighbor.  George  Mason.  He.-£x- 
pressed  approval  of  a  non-importation  plan  for  Virginia; 
but  he  pointed  out  that  it  could  be  made  successful  only  by 
going  over  the  heads  of  the  factors  and  inducing  the  people 
throughout  the  province  to  buy  no  imported  articles,  except 
certain  enumerated  ones.  "  He  proposed  the  meeting  of  the 
Assembly  in  May  as  the  best  time  for  launching  the  project 
with  any  prospect  of  uniform  action  by  the  several  counties.^ 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Jan.  29,  1770;  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  15. 
^Writings  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  pp.  263-267. 


136 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Mason  agreed  cordially  with  Washington's  views,  and  yet 
made  it  clear  that  no  plan  could  be  enforced  in  the  tobacco 
provinces  unless  it  should  be  considerably  more  liberal  in  the 
number  of  importations  permitted.  Mason  seemed  to  be 
aware  of  the  lack  of  support  for  the  measure  in  a  well- 
fertilized  public  opinion,  as  in  the  North;  and,  like  a  good 
propagandist,  he  urged  the  necessity  of  publishing  ''  some- 
thing preparatory  to  it  in  our  gazettes,  to  warn  the  people 
of  the  impending  danger  and  to  induce  them  the  more 
readily  and  cheerfully  to  concur  in  the  proper  measures  to 
avert  it."  He  proposed  also  that  the  association  should 
provide  for  the  non-exportation  of  tobacco.^ 
XThe  House  of  Burgesses  convened  at  Williamsburg  in 
MayJv^*^  Washington  found  ready  backing  for  a  non-importa- 
tion measure  among  such  men  as  Peyton  Randolph,  Richard 
Bland,  Patrick  Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  Thomas 
Jefferson.  But  the  house  proceeded  first  to  declare,  in  a  set 
of  resolutions,  its  official  opinion  that  the  sole  right  of 
taxing  Virginians  lay  with  that  body  and  to  state  its  ob- 
jections to  certain  recent  acts  of  the  British  administration; 
whereupon  Governor  Botetourt  peremptorily  dissolved  the 
body.  The  members,  though  now  divested  of  their  legal 
character,  met  at  a  private  house  in  town  and.  electing 
Pe^iion  Randolph  their  chairman,  promulgated  a  plan  of 
non-importation./ 
^^'^The  association  bore  the  date  IMay  18,  1769.     In  the  pre- 

^  Washington,  Writings  (Ford),  pp.  267-268  n. 

*  Pa.  Journ.,  June  i,  1769;  also  S.  C.  Gaz.,  July  20.  This  plan  of 
association  was  presented  by  Washington ;  and  in  its  essentials  fol- 
lowed a  draft,  made  several  weeks  before,  "by  George  Mason.  One  pro- 
posal of  Mason's  was  rejected,  however,  viz.,  if  the  other  measures 
proved  ineffectual,  a  non-exportation  of  tobacco  and  naval  supplies 
should  go  into  effect.  Washington.  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  pp.  268- 
269  n.;  Rowland.  K.  M..  Life  of  George  Mason  (New  York,  1892),  vol. 
i,  pp.  392-393- 


COMMERCL-iL  J 

amble,  it  was  declared  that  the  debt  for  British  merchandise 
was  very  great  and  that  the  means  of  paying  were  becoming 
more  and  more  precarious  because  of  the  restrictive  legis- 
lation of  Parliament,  particularly  the  Townshend  Acts. 
The  subscribers  pledged  themselves  never  thereafter  to  im- 
port any  goods,  which  were  then  or  should  thereafter  be 
subject  to  a  revenue  duty,  save  paper  not  exceeding  eight 
shillings  per  ream.  They  agreed,  further,  not  to  import 
thereafter  a  long  list  of  luxuries  and  fineries  from  Great 
Britain  or  any  part  of  Europe,  this  abstention  to  continue 
while  the  duties  continued  or  until  a  general  meeting  of 
subscribers  decided  otherwise.^  In  all  cases,  orders  already 
sent  for  goods  might  be  received;  and  the  subscribers  were 
not  restricted  from  buying  such  goods  in  local  trade  until 
September  i./  They  further  agreed  to  buy  no  slaves  im- 
ported after  November  i.  There  were  also  resolutions  to 
encourage  frugality  and  to  prevent  the  killing  of  lambs^^ 

Copies  of  the  association  were  carried  back  to  the  coun- 
ties by  the  gentlemen  who  attended  the  Williamsburg  meet- 
ing.   One  month  later  Washington  was  able  to  report  from 

^  Certain  Irish  wares  imported  from  Ireland  were  excluded.  This 
blacklist  was  typical  of  similar  lists  in  other  of  the  plantation  provinces 
and  is  here  given  in  full :  "  Spirits,  Wines,  Cyder,  Perry,  Beer,  Ale, 
Malt,  Barley,  Pease,  Beef,  Pork,  Fish,  Butter,  Cheese,  Tallow,  Candles, 
Oil,  Fruit,  Sugar,  Pickles,  Confectionary,  Pewter,  Hoes,  Axes,  Watches, 
Clocks,  Tables,  Chairs,  Looking  Glasses,  Carriages,  Joiners  and  Cab- 
inet Work  of  all  Sorts,  Upholstery  of  all  Sorts,  Trinkets  and  Jewellery, 
Plate  and  Gold,  and  Silversmith's  Work  of  all  Sorts,  Ribbons  and 
Millinery  of  all  Sorts,  Lace  of  all  Sorts;  India  Goods  of  all  Sorts,  ex- 
cept Spices;  Silks  of  all  Sorts  except  Sewing  Silk;  Cambrick,  Lawn, 
Mushn ;  Gauze  except  Boulting  Cloths ;  CalHco  or  Cotton  Stuffs  of 
more  then  2s.  per  Yard;  Linens  of  more  than  2s.  per  Yard;  Woollens, 
Worsted  Stuffs  of  all  Sorts  of  more  than  is.  6d.  per  Yard ;  Broad 
Cloths  of  all  Kinds  at  more  than  8s.  per  Yard;  Narrow  Cloths  of  all 
Kinds  at  more  than  3s.  per  Yard;  Hats;  Stockings  (Plaid  and  Irish 
Hose  excepted)  ;  Shoes  and  Boots,  Saddles  and  all  Manufactures  of 
Leather  and  Skins  of  all  Kinds." 


T  .>;  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Fairfax  county  that  "  the  association  in  this  and  in  the  two 
neighboring  counties  'of  Prince  Wilham  and  Loudoun  is 
compleat,  or  near  it."  ^  In  Dinwiddie  county  nearly  one 
thousand  people  signed.'^jrts  reception  generally  was  favor- 
able, the  merchants  being  the  only  class  to  hold  aloof. "\As 
we  shall  see,  after  a  year's  experience  under  the  asso(?iation 
it  was  found  necessary  to  adopt  a  new  plan,  which  the  mer- 
chants evinced  a  willingness  to  support. 

Meantime,  a  similar  movement  had  been  going  forward 
in  Maryland.  In  the  middle  of  March,  1769,  the  Mer- 
chants' Committee  of  Philadelphia  had  transmitted  their 
agreement  to  the  merchants  of  Baltimore  and  Chester  with 
the  admonition  that,  "  though  the  Merchants  and  traders 
here  have  entered  into  this  agreement  without  any  condition, 
yet  many  will  be  very  uneasy  under  it  if  you  do  not  come 
into  the  Like."  ^<^^he  result  was  that,  on  March  30,  the 
merchants  of  Baltimore  adopted  an  agreement^ 
f^  Outside  of  this  chief  commercial  center,  there  was  total 
apathy  among  the  traders  and  factors.N  "Atticus  "  came 
forward  ii^he  Maryland  Gazette,  May  yi,  1769,  with  a  plea 
'to  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  not  to  wait  on  the  factors 
to  act — for  they  were  powerless  because  of  their  English 
'  connections — but  to  take  measures  for  themselves  against 
the  use  of  British  fineries.<  The  principal  inhabitants  of 
Annapolis  and  Anne  Arundel  county  led  the  way  on  May 
2T,  with  an  association  for  a  limited  importation.  Soon 
similar  associations  had  been  entered  into  by  most  of  the 

'  Washington,  IVrithigs  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  p.  269  n. 

^  A^  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  10,  1769;  S.  C.  Gaz.,  Sept.  12. 

^Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  5-6.  A  letter  of  April  17  from 
Bristol,  England,  to  Philadelphia  affirmed :  "  Some  People  here  are 
evading  the  Resolution  of  your  Merchants.  Large  Quantities  of  Goods 
now  are  shipping  for  Maryland  which  are  intended  for  your  Place  and 
New  York."     A^  Y.  Journ.,  June  29,  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  1 30 

counties  of  the  province/  The  promoters  of  the  original 
Annapolis  association  now  invited  representatives  from  each 
county  to  meet  at  AnnapoHs  and  draw  up  a  uniform  associa- 
tion for  the  whole  province.  "  IMerchants,  Traders,  Free- 
holders, Mechanics  and  other  Inhabitants  "  were  represented 
at  the  meeting  on  June  22.  / 

The  association  adopted  closely  resembled  the  Virginia 
agreement  in  its  preamble  of  justification,  its  pledges  against 
lamb  consumption,  and  its  resolutions  against  the  importa- 
tion of  dutied  articles  and  of  foreign  luxuries,  save  that  in 
the  latter  case  the  Maryland  list  was  more  than  twice  as 
long.  In  providing  machinery  of  enforcement,  the  Tslary- 
land  association  went  beyond  any  plan  yet  formulated  in  any 
province.  The  subscribers,  whether  merchants,  tradesmen 
or  manufacturers,  agreed  not  to  take  advantage  of  the  pros- 
pective scarcity  of  goods  but  to  maintain  the  prices  usual 
during  the  last  three  years.  Business  rejations  were  to  be 
severed  with  any  persons  acting  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
the  association ;  they  were  to  be  considered  "'  Enemies  to 
the  Liberties -of  America"  and  treated  "on  all  Occasions 
with  the  Contempt  they  deserve."  The  subscribers  further 
pledged  themselves  net  to  purchase  from  any  other  province 
the  articles  that  were  debarred  by  the  agreement.  The 
association  was  to  continue  in  force  until  the  Townshend 
revenue  act  was  repealed  or  until  a  general  meeting  of  county 
representatives  should  decide  otherwise.  Twelve  copies  of 
the  paper  were  sent  to  each  county  to  be  signed  by  the 
people.^ 

'  Md.  Hist.  Mag.,  vol.  iii,  p.  144. 

-  Ibid.,  pp.  144-149;  also  Md.  Gaz.,  June  29,  1769.  Again  on  December 
21,  a  numerous  meeting  assembled  at  Annapolis,  including  many  mem- 
bers of  the  county  committees,  and  resolved  unanimously  that  ihe  asso- 
ciation be  "  m.ost  strictly  adhered  to  and  preserved  inviolate."  Ibid., 
Dec.  21,  1769;  also  Pa.  Gas.,  Jan.  4,  1770. 


I40 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


"^^The  mercantile  influence  in  South  Carolina  politics  was. 
stronger  than  in  any  of  the  other  plantation  provinces,  al- 
though, of  course,  it  was  very  different  in  character  from 
that  in  the  commercial  provinces/^  Charleston  was  the  most 
important  trading  town  of  the  South;  and  its  citizens  domin- 
ated the  politics  of  the  province.  The  movement  for  non- 
importation was  supported  by  the  workingmen  of  Charles- 
ton, who,  for  some  years,  had  been  developing  a  degree  of 
group  consciousness,  and  by  the  planters  of  the  province 
In  the  election  of  the  new  lower  house  of  the  Assembly  in 
October,  1768,  the  mechanics  of  the  two  town  parishes  ven- 
tured to  make  up  a  slate  and  succeeded  in  securing  the 
election  of  three  of  their  men,  or  one-half  of  their  ticket/ 
In  the  same  election,  the  planting  representation  in  the 
legislature  was  vastly  increased,  because  of  the  admission 
of  four  thousand  freeholders  to  the  electorate  through  the 
establishment  of  parish  boundaries  in  the  interior.^_^ 

'^^e  chief  leader  of  the  forces  for  non-importation  was 
Christopher  Gadsden,  a  native-born  merchant  who  had 
learned  business  methods  in  the  commercial  provinces  and 
who  possessed  large  planting  interests,  also.  'jHis  indomit- 
able spirit  was  illustrated  by  his  conduct  upon  the  death  of 
his  wife  in  January,  1769,  when  he  appeared  in  a  suit  of 
blue  homespun  at  the  funeral  rather  than  wear  imported 
black  cloth.^  His  chief  lieutenant  among  the  mechanic 
class  was  Peter  Timothy,  printer  of  the  South  Carolina 
Gazette  and  correspondent  of  the  Massachusetts  Adamses. 
The  members  of  the  new  Assembly  lent  moral  support  to 
the  cause.     The  standing  order  for  the  wearing  of  wigs 

1  S.  C.  Gas.,  Oct.  3,  10.  1768. 

^  Brit.  Papers  ("Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  ii.  pp.  193-195. 

'  "  The  whole  expense  of  her  funeral,  of  the  manufacture  of  England, 
did  not  amount  to  more  than  3I.  ids.  our  currency."  Bos.  News-Letter,. 
Mch.  9-  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  141 

and  stockings  was  altered  so  as  to  permit  members  to 
transact  committee  business  in  caps  and  long  trousers.  If 
the  Assembly  had  occasion  to  send  a  committee  to  greet  a 
newly-arrived  governor,  wrote  a  shocked  contemporaiy, 
"  he  would  probably  from  their  dress  take  them  for  so 
many  unhappy  persons  ready  for  execution  who  had  come 
to  petition  him  for  a  pardon."  ^ 

In  September,  1768,  a  letter  arrived  from  the  Boston 
Committee  of  Merchants,  urging  the  Charleston  merchants 
to  adopt  regulations  of  non-importation.  The  letter  was 
handed  about  among  several  of  the  principal  merchants  but 
received  no  favor;  and  the  body  of  merchants  were  not  even 
called  together  to  confer  upon  it.^  Governor  Bull  wrote 
home  approvingly  of  this  "silent  neglect;"  but  a  great 
many  people  began  to  feel  differently,  especially  when  re- 
ports of  the  widespread  adoption  of  agreements  in  the 
North  continued  to  pour  in  and  hope  of  relief  from  Parlia- 
ment grew  smaller.  The  South  Carolina  Ga:sctte  of  Febru- 
ary 2,  1769  published  a  form  of  agreement  for  the  non- 
consumption  of  imports,  which  all  people  were  advised  to 
adopt  unless  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties 
should  come  speedily.  A  few  days  later,  "A  Planter " 
wrote  in  favor  of  an  association  to  buy  no  newly-imported 
slaves  until  American  rights  should  be  restored.^  In  the 
latter  part  of  May,  another  "  Planter  "  urged  his  brethren 
to  foster  local  manufacturing  and  to  patronize  non-importers 
only.  "  You  cannot  expect  the  merchants  will  begin  this 
matter  themselves,"  he  wrote.  "...  Oblige  them  to  it,  by 
declaring  you  will  deal  with  none  that  do  import  extra 
articles,"  and,  by  this  m.ethod,   you  will  bring  about  "  a 

^  S.  C.  Gas.,  Nov.  2,  1769. 

^  S.  C.  &  Am.  Gen.  Gas.,  July  10,  1769;  Brit.  Papers  {"Sparks  Mss."), 
vol.  ii,  p.  195. 

^  S.  C.  Gas.  &  Country  Journ.,  Feb.  7,  1769. 


142  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

happy  Coalition  of  our  Interest  and  that  of  Merchants  into. 
one  inmicdiatc  self-interest."  ^     These  various  pleas  brought 

^.-^fio^tis factory  results." 

\  Evidently  the  time  had  arrived  to  force  the  issue  on  the 
merchantsX  Gadsden  opened  the  hostilities  on  June  22  by- 
writing  aM  article,  under  the  pseudonym,  "  Pro  Grege  et 
Rege,"  addressed  to  the  "  Planters,  Mechanicks  and  Free- 
holders ...  no  ways  concerned  in  the  importation  of 
British  manufactures."  ^  The  importers  of  European  goods, 
were  stigmatized  as  strangers  in  the  province,  many  of 
them  of  a  very  few  years'  residence.  To  listen  to  any 
more  assurances  that  the  revenue  acts  would  be  repealed  if 
the  people  remained  quiet,  was  declared  to  be  folly.  Had 
the  people  had  enough  real  friends  among  the  merchants  tO' 
obtain  even  one  meeting  to  consult  what  they  could  do  to 
aid  the  general  good,  though  every  newspaper  informed 
them  of  the  generous  actions  of  the  merchants  to  the  north- 
ward ?  On  the  contrary,  had  not  the  people  been  "  af- 
fronted with  numlDcrless  zveak  and  groundless  reasons  .  .  . 
in  order  to  frighten  and  deter  "  them  from  acting  as  they 
ought  ?  Could  it  be  prudent  to  entrust  the  public  good  to  a 
body  "whose  private  interest  is  glaringly  against  us?" 
Let  the  freeholders  and  fixed  settlers  resolve  upon  non- 
consumption,  and  the  merchants  would  imrnediately  decide 
notjio  import.  A  suggested  form  of  agreement  was  ap- 
pended to  the  article. 

'  S.  C.  Gas.,  June  i,  1769. 

^  It  was  claimed  that  a  number  of  people  in  different  parts  of  the 
province  did  come  into  the  association,  proposed  on  February  2,  by  a 
show  of  hands;  but  the  evidence  of  this  is  not  very  satisfactory.  Ibid., 
June  8,  1769. 

^  S.  C.  Gac,  June  22,  1769.  Replies  were  made  by  "The  Merchants 
of  Charles-Town,"  S.  C.  &  Am.  Gen.  Gas.,  July  10,  and  by  "  Pro 
Libertate  et  Lege,"  5".  C.  Gas.,  July  13 ;  but  Gadsden's  views  were  not 
effectively  refuted. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  143 

The  following  week,  the  South  Carolina  Gazette  pub- 
lished a  non-importation  agreement,  which  was  being  pushed 
by  Gadsden  and  Peter  Timothy  and  which  had  already  been 
subscribed  by  a  number  of  people,  including  twent3^-five 
members  of  the  Assembly.  This  form  was  recommended 
as  one  suitable  for  workingmen  and  planters;  and  it  was 
announced  that  the  present  measure  would  supersede  any 
earlier  forms  that  might  have  been  accepted.  Necessity  for, 
this  measure  was  attributed  to  the  heavy  and  unconstitu- 
tional burden  of  the  Townshend  revenue  acts  and  the  failure 
of  petitions  to  secure  relief.  The  agreement  was  to  be  oper- 
ative until  the  acts  were  repealed.  By  its  provisions,  the 
subscribers  agreed  to  stop  all  importation  from  Great 
Britain  thereafter,  and  to  countermand  all  orders,  wherever 
possible,  except  for  negro  cloth,  osnaburgs  and  duffel 
blankets,  workmen's  tools,  nails,  woolcards,  cardwire,  can- 
vas, ammunition,  books,  salt  and  coal.  They  agreed  that 
prices  should  not  advance;  and  that  they  would  promote 
American  manufactures  and  discard  the  use  of  mourning. 
The  inhabitants  were  given  notice  to  sign  the  subscription 
within  one  month,  on  pain  of  being  boycotted.^ 

The  mechaiiics  of^  Charleston  met  underLiberty  Tree  on 
July  3  and,  4J-Q  act  upon  the  agreement;  and  after  inserting 
two  new_articles,  the^mendeda^greeinent .  was  ciu_ickly_signed 
by  twg^  hundred  and  thirty  people.^-'  The  added  parts  pro- 
vided that  no  goods,  usually  imported  from  Britain,  should 
be  purchased  from  transient  traders ;  and  that  no  negroes 
should  be  bought  who  were  brought  into  the  province  after 
January  i,  1770.  A  few  days  later,  some  of  the  mechanics 
began  to  make  a  list  of  the  merchants  who  signed  the  agree- 
ment with  the  avowed  purpose  of  trading  only  with  such." 
-<The  great  body  of  the  merchants  would  have  nothing 

>  5'.  C.  Gac.  June  29.  1769.  '  ^^^d.,  July  6,  13.  i7^'9- 


144  ^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

to  do  with  these  proceeding-s,  objecting  bitterly  to  the 
non-representative  character  of  the  meetings  which  had 
formed  the  agreement,,  and  denouncing  the  measure  as 
"  an  unjust  attempt  of  one  part  of  the  community  ...  to 
throw  a  burthen  on  the  rest,  more  grievous  than  ever  was 
conceived  by  the  most  arbitrary  minister  of  the  most  des- 
potic King."  They  charged  that  the  agreement  was  so 
framed  as  to  enable  the  planters  and  mechanics  to  import 
the  articles  that  they  deemed  indispensable,  while  the  mer- 
chants received  no  special  favors ;  and  they  considered  that 
their  interests  were  assailed  by  the  mourning  agreement, 
since  their  stores  were  well  stocked  with  mourning  ma- 
terials.^^ The  merchants  held  their  first  meeting  to  con- 
sider tne  situation  on  Friday  afternoon,  June  30,  and,  after 
appointing  a  committee  to  draw  up  a  report,  adjourned  to 
July  7,  when  final  action  was  taken.  Nearly  eighty  mer- 
chants were  present  at  the  adjourned  meeting.  The  non- 
importation regulations,  which  the  meeting  adopted,  were 
much  less  rigorous  than  those  of  the  other  inhabitants. 
The  agreement  was  limited  to  January  i,  1771,  unless  the 
revenue  acts  should  be  repealed  sooner;  and  a  larger  and 
different  list  of  articles  was  permitted  to  be  imported.  All 
the  other  terms  of  the  rival  agreement  were  taken  over  by 
the  merchants,  except  the  pledges  for  promoting  local 
manufacturing  and  for  casting  aside  m.ourning  apparel.  In 
addition,  it  was  specified  that,  because  of  the  heavy  duty, 
no  wine  should  be  imported  or  marketed  during  the  year 
1770.- 
^  Affairs  were  now  in  a  bad  state  of  confusion.  Two 
forms  of  agreement  were  being  actively  circulated  for  signa- 
tures ;  and  the  feeling  of  animosity  between  the  classes  was 

^  "  The  Merchants  of  Charles-Town,"  5".  C.  &  Am.  Gen.  Gas.,  July 
13,  1769. 
^  S.  C.  Gas.,  July  6,  13.  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  141- 

growing  each  day  more  acute.  "A  Mechanic  "  demanded 
of  the  pubhc  how  the  planters  and  mechanics  could  be  ex- 
pected to  subscribe  to  an  agreement  which  did  not  contain 
one  syllable  in  favor  of  American  manufactures  or  any 
provision  against  the  use  of  mourning/  The  intolerable 
situation  was  brought  to  an  end  by  overtures  from  the 
merchants  for  a  joint  committee  to  draft  a  uniform  agree- 
ment containing  the  essentials  of  the  two  forms.  The 
^oint  committee  completed  its  work  on  Wednesday,  July  19. 
y  On  the  following  day,  the  merchants  unanimously  accepted  / 
the  plan  that  had  been  agreed  upon,  and  appointed  a  com- 
mittee of  thirteen  to  act  as  an  executive  body  for  doing 
"  whatever  might  be  farther  necessary  to  give  Force  to  the 
new  Association."  -  On  Saturday,  the  twenty-second,  a 
great  meeting  was  held,  under  Liberty  Tree,  of  the  me- 
chanics and  such  planters  as  happened  to  be  in  town. 
Christopher  Gadsden  read  the  new  form,  paragraph  by 
paragraph,  so  that  objections  might  be  offered,  but  the  whole 
was  immediately  voted  satisfactory.^  The  association 
was  quickly  signed  by  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  people, 
headed  by  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
who  were  in  town.  /A.  committee  of  thirteen  planters  and 
of  as  many  mechanics  was  appointed  to  serve  with  the 
merchants'  committee  as  one  General  Committee  of  thirty- 
nine,  ^  for  the  purpose  of  supervising  the  enforcement  of 
the  association.*  >  By  the  following  Thursday,  one  hundred 
and  forty-two  merchants  had  signed  the  new  resolutions.*  - , 

^  5".  C.  Gas.,  July  13,  1769. 

*  Ibid.,  July  27,  1769;  also  Bos.  News-Letter,  Aug.  17. 
'5.  C.  Gaz.,  July  27,  1769;  Bos.  Gas.,  Aug.  14.     The  names  of  the 

members  of  the  General  Committee  may  be  found  in  MoCrady,  S.  C. 
wider  Royal  Govt.,  p.  651  n. 

*  Among  the  planters  named  were  some  who  had  mercantile  interests 
as  well.  Before  the  vote  was  taken,  Gadsden  withdrew  his  own  name, 
and  induced  the  meeting  to  strike  out  of  the  planters'  list  all  others 
who  were  similarly  situated. 


X 


146  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

^^The  new  association  represented  a  victory  for  the  non- 
mercantile  classes,  in  most  respects,  although  it  contained 
most  of  the  provisions  of  both  earlier  associations.  •—In  one 
respect,  it  was  the  most  comprehensive  agreement  on  the 
continent,  for  it  was  to  remain  in  operation  until  the  various 
regulatory  acts  of  Parliament,  including  the  establishment 
of  the  Customs  Board  and  the  extension  of  vice-admiralty 
jurisdiction,  were  repealed^  The  subscribers  contracted  to 
import  no  European  or  East  Indian  goods  from  Great 
Britain  or  elsewhere,  except  such  orders  as  it  was  too  late 
to  countermand  and  excluding  a  list  of  articles  which  com- 
prehended all  those  of  the  earlier  agreements.  They  en- 
gaged to  maintain  the  usual  prices;  to  foster  provincial 
manufactures ;  to  dispense  with  mourning  apparel ;  to  trade 
with  no  transient  vessels  for  any  goods  after  November  i, 
save  salt  and  coal;  to  import  no  negroes  from  Africa  dur- 
ing the  year  1770  nor  to  import  any  wine  after  January  i, 
1 770.  ^T'inally  a  boycott  was  declared  against  ever}^  resident 
of  the  province,  who  failed  to  sign  within  one  month ;  and 
any  subscriber  who  became  delinquent  was  to  be  treated  with 
"  the  utmost  contempt."^  Later  in  the  year,  the  General 
Committee  amended  the  association  so  as  to  include  a  non- 
exportation  of  tanned  leather  until  the  revenue  acts  were 
repealed,  since  saddlery  and  shoes  were  no  longer  to  be  im- 
ported from  abroad.^  ^ 

Effects  of  the  mourning  regulation  were  soon  manifest; 
and  by  October  the  use  of  scarves  and  gloves  at  funerals 
was  totally  discarded  at  Charleston.^  The  practice  of  the 
wealthier  families  of  educating  their  sons  in  Great  Britain 
was,  in  a  number  of  cases,  given  up,  "  now  that  the  Mother 
Country  seems  unfriendly  to  us."     Thus,  in  August,  1769, 

^  S.  C.  Gas.,  Oct.  26,  1769. 
''Ibid.,  Oct.  5,  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  1 47 

seven  youths  sailed  on  the  same  vessel  to  Philadelphia  to 
enter  the  college  there/  Some  sporadic  interest  was  shown 
in  manufacturing. 


s 


2Tie  situation  in  Georgia  revealed  the  same  discord  _be- 
tween  the  merchants  and  the  other  inhabitants  that  existed 
elsewhere  in  the  plantation  provincesy  Spurred  on  by  a 
letter  from  the~General  Committee  of  South  Carolina,  a 
radical  group,  known  as  the  "  Amicable  Society,"  met  at 
Liberty  Hall  in  Savannah,  and  issued  a  call  for  a  meeting 
of  all  inhabitants  on  Tuesday,  September  12,  to  consider 
methods  of  obtaining  relief  from  the  Townshend  Acts. 
Notwithstanding  the  claim  that  "  Merchants,  Planters, 
Tradesmen  and  others  "  attended  the  public  gather ing,_it  is 
evident  that  the  merchants,  if  any  were  present,  formed  an 
ineffective  minority.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  submit 
a  form  of  agreement  to  the  inhabitants  a  week  later.' 

The  merchants  of  Savannah  now  determined  to  head  off 
the  popular  movement ;  and  three  days  before  the  appointed; 
time  they  assembled  at  a  private  house  and  adopted  an  agree- 
ment against  the  importation  of  dutied  articles  alone.  In 
the  preamble,  the  recent  acts  of  Parliament  were  declared 
unconstitutional;  and  the  particular  grievance  of  Georgia 
was  asserted  to  be  the  requirement  that  the  duties  should 
be  paid  in  specie,  this  in  face  of  the  fact  that  the  stoppage 
of  the  Spanish  trade,  some  years  before,  had  plugged  the 
source  of  specie  supply.^ 

Their  efforts  proved  unavailing.  The  mass  meeting  of 
September  19  adopted  a  comprehensive  agreement,  pat- 
terned after  that  of  South  Carolina  of  July  20  and  22.  The 
terms  of  the  agreement  were  to  expire  with  the  repeal  of  the 

^  5".  C.  Gaz.,  Aug.  24,  1769. 

-  Ga.  Gas.,  Sept.  6,  13,  1769. 

^  Ibid.,  Sept.  20,  1769;  also  White,  Ga.  Hist.  Colls.,  p.  42. 


148  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Townshend  duties.  The  subscribers  engaged  to  import  no 
European  or  East  Indian  goods,  save  thirty-seven  varieties 
and  such  former  orders  as  it  was  too  late  to  countermand. 
The)-  pledged  themselves  to  sell  goods  at  the  customarv- 
rates;  to  promote  provincial  manufactures,  and  to  discard 
mourning;  to  import  no  negroes  from  Africa  after  June  i, 
1770  nor  to  import  any  wine  after  March  i  of  the  same 
year.  All  trade  should  be  severed  with  inhabitants  of  the 
province  and  with  transient  traders  who  neglected  to  sign 
the  agreement  within  five  weeks ;  and  every  violator  should 
be  deemed  "  no  Friend  to  his  Country."  ^<lThis  agreement 
adopted,  it  remained  for  the  future  to  reveal  whether  the 
merchants  would  deem  themselves  bound  by  an  ordinance 
not  of  their  own  making:.   ) 

/  :^ 

C4II  the  southern  provinces  but  North  Carolina  had  now 
taken  action.  The  excellent  example  of  the  neighboring  prov- 
inces seemed  to  make  little  impression  on  North  Carolina. 
Here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  South,  the  merchants  of  the  chief 
tradine^  community  used  their  influence  to  retard  the  move- 
ments^ Finally,  on  September  30,  1769,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Cornelius  Harnett,  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  of  Wil- 
mington and  Brunswick  adopted  resolutions  of  non-im- 
portation." The  next  step  was  the  adoption  of  a  provincial 
association ;  and  this  was  accomplished  under  circumstances 
closely  parallel  to  those  in  Virginia  six  months  earlier.  It 
was  the  verbatim  adoption  of  the  defiant  resolutions  of  Vir- 
ginia that  caused  Governor  Tryon  to  dissolve  the  North 
Carolina  Assembly.  The  members,  in  their  private  capaci- 
ties, then  held  a  meeting  in  the  courthouse  at  Newbern ;  and 

*  Ga.  Gas.,  Sept.  20,  1769;  also  Ga.  Ret:  Recs.,  vol.  i,  pp.  8-1 1.  Jona- 
than Bryan  was  suspended  from  the  provincial  council  because  he  pre- 
sided over  this  meeting.    Brit.  Papers  ("Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  ii,  p.  284. 

*  5.  C.  Gaz.,  Oct.  26,  1769;  S.  C.  Gaz.  &  Country  Journ.,  Sept.  12. 
^  Cape  Fear  Merc,  ]\.\\y  11,  1770;  also  5".  C.  Gaz.,  Aug.  9. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  I^C) 

on  the  next  day,  "November  7,  1769,  an  association  o£ 
non-importation  was  agreed  upon  and  signed  by  the  sixty- 
four  members  present^  The  first  part  of  the  association  , 
attributed  the  current  depression  to  the  revenue  acts  and 
other  statutes  depriving  Americans  of  their  rights  as  Eng- 
Hshmen,  and  called  upon  all  inhabitants  of  the  province  to  ' 
concur  in  the  association  until  the  oppressive  acts  should  .■ 
be  repealed.  Derelict  subscribers  were  "to  be  treated  with 
the  utmost  contempt;''  the  customary  standard  of  prices  for 
domestic  goods  was  to  be  maintained;  and  the  terms  of  the 
document  were  to  go  into  effect  beginning  January  i,  1770. 
In  other  respects,  the  association  was  almost  precisely  like 
that  of  Virginia  of  May  18.  The  subscribers  agreed  not  to 
import  the  same  list  of  foreign  wares,  nor  to  buy  newly  im- 
ported slaves,  nor  ever  again  to  import  dutied  goods,  except 
paper.  There  were  also  similar  regulations  for  encourag- 
ing economy  and  preventing  the  killing  of  lambs. ^ 

I  While  the  non-importation  movement  was  making  head-\. 
way  in  the  plantation  provinces,  most  of  the  minor  provinces  ^ 
in  the  commercial  group  had  expressed  formal  allegiance 
to  the  measure.  Since  these  provinces  were,  in  most  cases, 
tributary  commercially  to  the  great  trading-towns,  their 
action  was  not  of  great  importance.  Only  two  provinces, 
Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire,  held  off  for  a  while; 
and  the  course  of  Rhode  Island  created  a  situation  of  some 
perplexity  because  of  the  importance  of  Newport  as  a  com- 
mercial centerji 

Delaware  was  the  first  of  the  minor  provinces  to  act.  At 
the  August  session  of  the  grand  jury  of  Newcastle  county 
on  the  Delaware,  a  "compact"  was  entered  into,  to  con- 
form to  the  spirit  of  the  Philadelphia  agreement,  and  to 

^  S.  C.  Gaz.  &  Country  Journ.,  Dec.  8,  1769;  also  N.  C.  Booklet,  vol. 
viii,  pp.  22-26. 


150 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


boycott  and  publish  any  offenders  against  it.  On  Saturday, 
August  26,  1769,  a  meeting  of  the  principal  freeholders  of 
the  county  approved  and  unanimously  signed  the  compact/ 
Apparently  no  action  was  taken  by  the  other  counties  on 
the  Delaware. 

On  October  18,  the  members  of  the  House  of  Assembly  of 
New  Jersey  passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  merchants  and 
traders  of  New  Jersey,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  "  for 
their  disinterested  and  public  spirited  Conduct  in  withhold- 
ing their  Importations  of  British  Merchandize."  ^  The 
only  other  evidence  of  formal  action  on  the  part  of  the  in- 
habitants came  at  mass  meetings  in  Essex  county  and  at  New 
Brunswick  in  June,  1770,  w^hen  loyalty  to  non-importation 
was  pledged  and  a  sentence  of  boycott  pronounced  upon  all 
importers  and  their  allies.^ 

On  April  26,  1769,  the  Committee  of  Merchants  at  New 
York  wTOte  a  letter  to  the  merchants  at  Ne\y_Haven,  the 
chief  trading  place  in  Connecticut,  appealing  to  them  to 
adopt  the  same  measures  that  Boston,  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia had  united  upon.*_^The  merchants  of  New  Haven 
met  for  that  purpose  on  July  10,  and  agreed  neither  to 
receive  nor  purchase  any  goods  from  Great  Britain  until 
the  Townshend  duties  should  be  repealed)  with  the  exception 
of  certain  specified  articles  and  such 'Commodities  as  were 
excluded  by  the  Boston  and  New  York  agreements.  Delin- 
quent subscribers  were  to  be  boycotted  as  "  enemies  to  their 
Country."  ^  In  August  the  merchants  at  New  London 
and   Groton   adopted   regulations  of   a   similar  tendency.* 

^  Pa.  Joiirn.,  Aug.  31,  1769;  also  S.  C.  Gas.,  Oct.  12. 
^  Pa.  Gas.,  Oct.  26,  1769;  also  /  A'^.  /.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  546. 
'  N.  J.  Journ.,  June  7,  28,  1770;  also  /  A'.  /.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  169- 
172,  186-189. 
*■  Conn.  Cour.,  July  30,  1770;  also  A'.  F.  Gas.  &■  Post-Boy,  Aug.  6. 
^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Aug.  7,  1769;  Conn.  Cour..  July  30,  1770. 
®  Bos.  Chron.,  Aug.  28,  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  iqi 

The  support  of  the  farmers  of  the  province  was  manifested 
in  a  resolution  passed,  on  October  12,  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  a  body  which  they  entirely  controlled. 
High  approval  was  expressed  of  the  merchants  of  Con- 
necticut and  the  other  provinces  for  stopping  importation 
from  Great  Britain.^  On  Christmas  day,  a  town  meeting 
at  Wethersfield  congratulated  the  merchants  on  their  con- 
duct, and  voted  to  use  no  goods  debarred  by  the  merchants' 
agreement.  Silas  Deane,  a  local  merchant  in  the  West 
Indian  trade,  had  worked  actively  for  these  resolutions  and 
was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  of  enforcement.^ 
Norwich  followed  the  example  of  Wethersfield  a  month 
later.  ^ 

\  Now  occurred  a  movement  to  standardize  the  agreements 
of  the  various  towns ;  and  a  call  was  sent  forth  for  a  meet- 
ing of  the  principal  merchants  and  traders  at  Middletown 
on  February  20,  1770,  to  take  proper  measures.  The  mer- 
cantile convention  met  at  the  appointed  time  and  there  were 
also  "  a  Number  of  the  respectable  Inhabitants  "  in  attend- 
ance. After  a  three  days'  session,  the  meeting  formulated 
a  program  of  action,  designed  to  free  the  province  from 
the  economic  domination  not  only  of  England  but  of  tlie 
neighboring  provinces  as  well.  A  uniform  agreement  of 
non-importation  was  drawn  up.*  Old  prices  were  to  con- 
tinue; violators  of  the  non-importation,  whether  merchants 
or  others,  were  to  be  boycotted ;  and  a  similar  treatment  was 
to  be  visited  on  any  provinces  that  did  not  observe  non- 
importation.    A  project  was  launched  for  a  "  society  for 

^  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Nov.  20,  1769. 

'  Bos,  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  22,  1770. 

'  Ibid.,  Feb.  5,  1770. 

*  About  thirty  articles  were  permitted  to  be  imported,  most  of  which 
were  useful  for  local  manufacturing.  This  list  was  further  extended 
at  a  general  meeting  of  September  13.    Conn.  Cour.,  Sept.  17,  1770. 


1^2  THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

the  purpose  of  promoting  and  extending  the  arts,  agricul- 
ture, manufactures,  trade  and  commerce  of  this  colony;  " 
and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  float  the  enterprise  by 
means  of  popular  subscriptions/  Another  committee  was 
instructed  to  seek  preferential  treatment  from  the  legis- 
lature for  the  exportation  of  Connecticut  flour  in  Con- 
necticut vessels,  for  local  ships  in  the  fisheries,  and  for  the 
establishment  of  a  glass  factory.  The  convention  further 
resolved  that,  in  view  of  the  extreme  scarcity  of  cash,  they 
would  urge  the  legislature  at  its  May  session  "  to  make 
notes  of  hand  negotiable  with  us,  under  proper  regula- 
tions, as  they  are  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  some  of  our 
sister  colonies."  ' 

/At  first  thought,  it  may  seem  strange  that  the  merchants 
of  Rhode  Island  were  not  abreast  of  Boston  and  New  York 
in  opposition  to  the  trade  restrictions  of  Parliament.  With 
the  course  of  these  greater  towns  their  true  interest  un- 
doubtedly lay ;  but  the  temptation  in  hard  times  to  turn  the 
self-denial  of  their  neighbors  to  their  own  immediate  ad- 
vantage proved  too  great.  ^     J\'Ioreover,  they  had  so  long 

^  This  society  was  duly  organized ;  and,  at  its  first  meeting,  on  May 
22,  1770,  it  offered  premiums  for  domestic  wheat,  wool,  textiles,  stock- 
ings and  nails.  New-London  Gas.,  June  15,  1770.  But  the  breakdown 
of  the  non-importation  movement  later  in  the  year  prevented  this  soci- 
ety from  accomplishing  its  purpose. 

^  Conn.  Journ.,  Jan.  19,  1770;  Conn.  Cour.,  Feb.  26. 

'  Thus,  newspapers  in  New  York  and  Boston  alluded  to  recent  "  large 
Importations  of  British  Goods  into  Rhode  Island  with  Intent  to  take 
an  Advantage  of  the  Sister  Colonies."  N.  Y.  Journ.,  June  29,  Nov.  30, 
1769;  Mass.  Gas.,  July  10.  Vide  also  R.  I.  Commerce,  vol.  i,  p.  246, 
In  August,  1769,  two  British  manufacturers,  who  had  been  expelled 
from  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  later  from  New  London,  Conn.,  for  trying 
to  sell  imported  British  wares,  journeyed  on  to  Newport  and  quickly 
disposed  of  their  goods  there.  Bos.  Chron.,  Aug.  28,  1769;  A'^.  Y.  Gas. 
&  Post-Boy.  Aug.  28.  In  December,  a  trader  in  "  a  Country  Town 
Southward  of  Boston"  complained  that  the  trade  of  the  western  part 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM 


153 


accustomed  themselves  to  defiances  of  the  trade  regulations 
of  Parliament  that  it  violated  no  moral  scruple  to  ignore 
the  extra-legal  ordinances  of  nearby  provinces>  The  mer- 
chants of  Newport,  the  leading  town,  were' the  chief  of- 
fenders. As  one  observer  put  it,  the  merchants  there  "  have 
been  pretty  unanimous  in  disputing  fees  with  their  Col- 
lector &c."  but  have  failed  to  adopt  non-importation  meas- 
ures. "  They  have  been  busy  in  killing  flies  while  they 
should  have  been  destroying  wolves  and  tygers !  "  ^ 

After  some  preliminary  agitation  on  the  part  of  the  local 
merchants,  a  town  meeting  at  Providence  on  October  24, 
1769  resolved  not  to  import  or  purchase  any  of  the  com- 
modities listed  in  the  old  town  agreement  of  December  2, 
1767.-  This,  it  should  however  be  noted,  was  an  ex- 
tremely liberal  form  of  non-importation  regulation  in  com- 
parison with  the  agreements  in  the  other  commercial  prov- 
inces. As  the  s^ow  Tristram  was  soon  expected  from 
London  with  goods  forbidden  by  the  agreement,  the  various 
importers,  some  of  whom  had  been  unmoved  before,  arose 
in  the  meeting  and  agreed  to  store  the  goods  with  a  com- 
mittee of  the  town.  Later,  precaution  was  taken  to  prevent 
inhabitants  from  buying  goods,  which  local  merchants  were 
forbidden  to  sell,  from  strolling  vendors,  all  purchasers 
being  warned  that  their  names  would  be  publicly  advertised.^ 

of  Massachusetts  was  being  absorbed  by  Rhode  Island  merchants,  be- 
cause prices  at  Newport  were  twenty  per  cent  cheaper  than  at  Boston. 
Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Dec.  21,  1769.  "A  Bostonian  "  charged  in 
the  Boston  Chronicle,  Feb.  5,  1770,  that  Providence  had  developed  a 
considerable  trade  with  western  Massachusetts.  In  like  vein,  the 
Chronicle,  Dec.  11,  1769,  reported  that  twenty  chests  of  tea  had  been 
brought  overland  from  Rhode  Island  within  the  fortnight. 

*  N.  Y.  Joi'.rn.,  Nov.  9,  1769. 

'Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Oct.  16,  1769;  Bos.  Gas.,  Oct.  30;  Mass. 
Gas.  &■  News-Letter,  Nov.  2,  Dec.  14.     Vide  supra,  p.  iii. 

'  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  17,  1769. 


154 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


The  Newport  merchants  were  more  refractor}'.  A  letter 
of  October  21,  1769  from  the  Philadelphia  Merchants'  Com- 
mittee notified  them  that  a  plan  was  under  way  to  sever 
commercial  relations  with  them  unless  they  united  in  the 
measures  of  the  other  provinces/  ^  Boston  newspaper 
announced  that  "  all  intercourse  with  Rhode  Island  is  nearly 
shut  up,  as  if  the  plague  were  there;"  ^\and  the  South 
Carolina  Gazette  of  November  14  asserted  that  sirnilar  meas- 
ures were  about  to  be  adopted  at  Charleston.  /Under  this 
outside  pressure,  the  body  of  Newport  merchants  met  on 
October  30,  and  agreed  to  import  no  British  manufactures  or 
East  India  goods  after  January  i,  1770.^  Their  design 
was  quickl}'-  detected.  The  Philadelphia  Merchants'  Com- 
mittee informed  them  that  the  agreement  was  unsatisfactor)' 
in  two  respects  :  by  confining  themselves  to  British  and  East 
India  goods,  they  still  were  at  liberty  to  import  from  Great 
Britain  German,  Russian  and  other  European  commodities ; 
and,  by  postponing  the  operation  of  the  agreement  until 
the  first  of  January,  they  might  import  vast  quantities  of 
goods,  ordered  especially  for  the  intervaC/"  Unless  these 
matters  were  rectified  and  a  "  determinate  answer  "  given 
by  December  10,  they  were  told  that  Philadelphia  would 
boycott  them.*  At  New  York,  the  merchants  instituted  an 
immediate  boycott,  subject  to  removal  when  the  Newport 
merchants  conformed  to  conditions  somewhat  similar  to 
those  imposed  b}^  Philadelphia.^  v:;T'he  Newport  merchants 
now  adopted  a  new  agreement,  which  was  acceptable  in 
every  respect,  save  that  the  imports  lately  arrived  were  not 

'  Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  31-34. 
*  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Oct.  S,  1769. 
^  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Nov.  13,  1769. 
^Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  43-45. 
°  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  23,  1769. 


COMMERCIAL  REFORM  l^- 

to  be  stored/  Although  not  entirely  satisfied,  the  Phila- 
delphia merchants,  upon  strong  assurance  of  strict  observ- 
ance in  the  future,  determined  to  continue  trade  relations; 
and,  some  weeks  later,  the  New  Yorkers  re-opened  trade 
with  Newport."  ^^.evertheless,  the  equivocal  course  of  the 
Newport  merchants  did  not  promise  well  for  the  future 
Cv^scientious  performance  of  pledges  reluctantly  given,  y 
NyThe  inaction  of  New  Hampshire  was  due,  for  the  most 
part,  to  causes  of  a  different  character.  The  province  was 
in  the  midst  of  a  period  of  unusual  prosperity,  and  taxes 
were  lower  than  they  had  been  for  years. ^  The  predomin- 
ant interests  of  the  province  were  agricultural ;  and,  lacking 
a  first-rate  trading-town,  there  was  no  aggressive  mer- 
cantile class  to  disturb  the  general  complacency.  Moreover, 
most  of  the  seats  of  power  in  the  province  were  occupied 
by  relatives  of  Governor  Wentworth,  the  royal  appointee.* 
Under  the  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Governor 
Wentworth  was  able  to  write  to  the  home  government  as 
late  as  February  i8,  1770:  "  There  are  not  any  non-impor- 
tation committees  or  associations  formed  in  this  province, 
tho'  daily  solicited."  He  added  that  some  Scotch  merchants 
had  now  sent  their  European  importations  there  and  were 
carrying  on  their  business  "  without  the  least  molestation."  ^ 
/No  steps  were  taken  in  New  Hampshire  to  join  the  union 
of  the  other  provinces  until  the  alarming  news  arrived  of 
the  Boston  Massacre!^ 

*^  Bos.  Gas.,  Jan.  29,  1770;  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  15. 

*  A''.  Y.  Journ.,  Jan.  25,  1770;  A''.  F.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Jan.  29. 

3  Fry,  W.  H.,  New  Hampshire  as  a  Royal  Province  (Col.  U.  Studies, 
vol.  xxix,  no.  2),  p.  420. 

*  It  would  appear  that,  of  the  nine  members  of  the  council,  eight  were 
connected  with  the  governor  by  blood  or  marriage  ties ;  Judge  Atkin- 
son of  the  Superior  Court  was  the  governor's  uncle;  and  the  clerk  of 
the  Superior  Court  was  the  judge's  nephew.  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  June  25, 
1770. 

^  Brit.  Papers  {"Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  iii,  p.  205. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Enforcement  and  Breakdown  of  Non- 
Importation   ( 1 768-1 770) 


<^. 


}y  the  autumn  of  1769  non-importation  agreements 
had  been  adopted  in  every  province  save  New  Hampshire 
But  if  these  paper  manifestoes  were  to  accomplish  their 
purpose  of  coercing  the  mother  country,  they  must  be 
accompanied  by  a  firm  enforcement;  It  is  appropriate, 
therefore,  to  inquire  to  what  extent  the  boycott  against 
Great  Britain  was  actually  executed.  Certain  difficul- 
ties, inherent  in  the  inquiry,  will  render  dogmatic  con- 
clusions impossible.  Thus,^the  agreements  of  the  sev- 
eral provinces  went  into  operation  at  different  times, 
some  being  separated  by  long  intervals  of  time.  Their 
provisions  varied  widely  in  their  comprehensiveness. 
Furthermore,  the  evidence,  upon  which  conclusions 
must  be  based,  is  voluminous  in  the  case  of  some  pro- 
vinces, and  very  scanty  for  others.  Custom  house 
figures  are  of  doubtful  assistance  in  gauging  the  earn- 
estness of  the  non-importers,  since  they  do  not  indicate 
whether  the  goods  imported  were  allo^ved  or  proscribed 
by  the  agreements,  and  they  do  not  at  all  take  into  ac- 
count the  peculiar  obstacles  with  which  the  non-impor- 
ters may  have  had  to  contend  in  any  particular  locality. 

^fln    no    province   w^ere   the  difficulties  of  enforcement 

greater    than  in  Massachusetts*^  The  actual  good  faith 

of  the  merchant  body  of  Boston  was  impugned  bv  many 
1.^6 


NON-IMPORTATION  I -7 

people  at  the  time  ;  and  the  writers  of  history  have  found 
it  easy  to  follow  this  example  since.'  But  the  story  of  the 
enforcement  at  Boston  will  show  thatlthe  merchants  were 
laboring  earnestly,  and  with  a  large  measure  of  effec- 
tiveness, to  establish  the  non-importation  against  un- 
usually heavy  odds]'),  "I  wonder  for  my  part,"  wrote  a 
Boston  merchant  in  1770  to  a  New  York  friend,  "how 
we  have  been  able  to  continue  and  so  strictly  to  adhere  to 
the  agreement  as  we  have  done."  Besides  the  usual 
obstacles,  ''we  have  had  a  governor,  together  with  a 
board  of  commissioners,  with  their  train  of  officers  and 
dependants  who  have  exerted  every  nerve  to  render 
abortive  the  non-importation  agreement,"  and  they  have 
had  support  from  the  military  power.  "We  have  had  a 
government  on  each  side  of  us  who  have  imported  as 
usual  without  the  least  restraint;"  and  "we  have  six  or 
seven  ports  within  our  government  to  attend  to  besides 
our  own."  ^  The  writer  might  have  added  thatlthe  Bos- 
ton merchants  were  the  first  on  the  continent  to  adopt 
a  non-importation  agreement  and  had  anticipated  the 
action  of  most  of  the  provinces  by  many  months.  Finally 
and  not  least,  he  should  have  noted  thatlthe  opponents 
of  non-importation  had  a  giant  of  strength  on  their  side 
in  the  person  of  the  shrewdest  and  most  pertinacious 
controversialist  in  British  America,  John  Mein  of  the 
Boston  Chronicle^ 

iThe  merchants'  agreement  went  into  effect  on  January 
I,  1769.  On  April  21,  a  meeting  of  (the  merchants  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  inspect  the  manifests,  or  official 
cargo  lists,  of   vessels    which    were  then   arriving   from 

^E.g.,  editorial  note  in  Dickinson,  IVritittgs  (Ford),  vol.  i,  p.  436; 
Becker,  N.  Y.  Parties,  1760-1776,  p.  85. 

^ N.  Y.  Journ.,  July  5,  1770. 


1^8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS :  1763-1776 

Great  Britain  with  spring  shipments  and  to  report  back 
to  the  body  the  names  of  merchants  who  had  imported 
in  defiance  of  the  agreement.'!  On  the  twenty-seventh, 
the  merchants  heard  the  report :  six  subscribers  of  the 
agreement  had  received  a  few  articles,  the  residue  of 
former  orders,  and  six  or  seven,  v^ho  were  not  signers, 
had  imported  small  quantities  of  prohibited  articles. 
The  former  had  readily  agreed  to  store  their  importa- 
tions with  the  committee,  while  the  committee  was  in- 
structed to  confer  further  with  the  latter.^  An  inspired 
statement  a  few  days  later  informed  the  public  that  the 
merchants'  agreement  had  been  ''  strictly  adhered  to " 
by  its  signers,  and  that  there  had  not  been  imported  "  in 
all  the  ships  from  England  more  Goods  than  would  fill 
a  Long-Boat."3 

^K  campaign  that  was  destined  to  continue  through 
many  months  was  begun  to  discredit  utterly  those  who 
violated  the  merchants'  agreement.  On  May  8,  the 
Boston  town  meeting  expressed  its  high  satisfaction  over 
the  scrupulous  conduct  of  the  merchants  and  recom- 
mended to  the  inhabitants  to  withdraw  their  patronage 
from  "those  few  persons"  who  had  imported  goods 
contrary  to  the  agreement!^  "i^^ithin  the  next  two  weeks, 
some  thousands  of  handbilfs  were  dispersed  through 
Massachusetts  and  the  neighboring  provinces,  advising 

^Bos.  Gaz.,  Apr.  24,  1769;  also  A'.  Y.  Joj4rn.,  May  4. 

^Bos.  Gaz.,  May  i,  1769.  This  account  contained  no  names.  The 
complete  report  of  the  committee,  with  the  names  of  the  importers, 
etc.,  may  be  found  in  M.  H.  S.  Ms.,  91  L.,  p.  42.  There  were  actually 
twenty-eight  importers  who  were  non-signers,  but  the  contents  of  their 
orders  were  not  known  in  most  instances. 

^Bos.  Gaz.,  May  i,  1769;  also  A".  Y.  Gaz.  <5f  Merc,  May  8. 

^Bos.  News-Letter,  May  11,  1769;  also  Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1758-1769), 
p.  289. 


NON-IMPORTA TION  I  i^q 

all  people  to  shun  the  shops  of  the  following-  firms  as 
men  who  preferred  private  advantage  to  public  welfare  : 
William  Jackson,  Jonathan  Simpson,  J.  and  R.  Selkrig,' 
John  Taylor,  Samuel  Fletcher,  Theophilus  Lillie,  James 
McMasters  &  Co.,  Thomas  and  Elisha  Hutchinson,  and 
Nathaniel  Rogers.^  Thomas  and  Elisha  Hutchinson,  it 
should  be  noted,  were  sons  of  the  lieutenant  governor 
and  carried  on  a  business  of  tea  importation  in  which 
the  elder  Thomas  himself  was  interested.^  Nathaniel 
Rogers,  another  of  the  proscribed  men,  was  a  nephew  of 
the  lieutenant  governor.  All  these  men  were  respected 
merchants  of  the  city ;  and  so  far  as  any  records  would 
indicate,  none  of  them  were  interested  in  illicit  traffic  or 
even  in  the  West  Indian  trade.  No  doubt  most  of  them, 
like  the  Hutchinsons,  were  conducting  lawful  businesses 
which  throve  best  under  the  regulations  of  Parliament ; 
and  a  number  of  them  had  friends  and  relatives  among 
the  official  class.  They  were  not  Tories  in  any  political 
sense,  and  neither  then  nor  afterwards  did  they  hold 
posts  under  the  government.  ^They  were  men  who,  how- 
ever, objected  as  fiercely  to  a  direction  of  their  affairs  by 
the  populace  as  the  smugglers  of  1761  did  to  an  inter- 
ference with  their  business  by  a  governmental  writ  of 
assistanceA 

The  eftort  to  inaugurate  a  boycott  against  these  men 
brought  to  their  defense  the  doughty  champion,  to  whom 
reference  has  already  been  made,  John  Mein,  a  co-pub- 

'Also  spelled  Selkridge  and  Selking. 

^ N.  Y.  Journ.,  June  29,  1769. 

*  Vide  infra,  p.  282.  I  have  found  no  evidence  to  support  William  Pal- 
frey's allegation,  made  in  a  private  letter  to  John  Wilkes,  October  30, 
1770,  that  the  elder  Hutchinson,  after  graduation  at  Harvard,  "  was  for 
many  years  in  the  Holland  trade,  where  he  constantly  practised  all  the 
various  methods  of  smuggling."  Palfrey,  J.  G.,  William  Palfrey  {2 
Libr.  Am.  Biog.,  Sparks,  ed.,  vol.  vii),  pp.  368-369. 


l6o  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

lisher  of  the  Boston  Chronicle.  Mein  was  a  native  of 
Scotland  and  had  been  a  book  dealer  in  Boston  since  his 
arrival  in  October,  1764.  He  had  received  a  good 
education,  he  possessed  a  faculty  for  effective  literary  ex- 
pression and  made  himself  a  useful  citizen  generally.  He 
had  established  a  circulating  library ;  and  in  December, 
1767,  he  founded,  with  John  Fleeming,  the  Boston  Chron- 
icle, which  quickly  showed  itself  to  be  the  most  enter- 
prising sheet  on  the  continent  in  content  as  well  as 
typographical  appearance.  After  a  time,  he  converted  it 
from  a  weekly  to  a  semi-weekly,  without  any  addition  in 
price,  and  it  thus  became  the  only  journal  in  New  Eng- 
land published  with  such  frequency.  Mein  had  hitherto 
avoided  any  part  in  the  turmoil  of  the  times  and,  with 
the  other  editors,  he  had  published  the  entire  series  of 
the  Farmer  s  Lettej's.  Iln  arousing  the  ire  of  John  Mein, 
the  merchants  of  Boston  had  stirred  up  a  veritable  hor- 
net's nest.'j! 

'  For  the  facts  of  Mein's  life,  vide  Thomas,  I.,  History  of  Printing 
in  America  (Albany,  1874),  vol.  i,  pp.  151-154,  vol.  ii,  pp.  59-61;  Ayer, 
M.  F.,  and  Mathews,  A.,  Checli-List  of  Boston  Newspapers  1704-1780 
(Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  ix),  pp.  480-481.  Thomas  inclines  to  the 
contemporary  opinion  that  Mein  was  in  the  pay  of  the  government  at 
this  period.  Hutchinson's  correspondence  in  the  Mass.  Archives  fails 
to  give  any  hint  of  such  a  connection.  Mein  himself  denied  again  and 
again  that  he  was  acting  in  behalf  of  "a  Party,"  and  he  maintained 
that  he  was  "unbiassed  by  fear  or  afifection,  prejudice  or  party."  It  is 
evident,  of  course,  that  he  held  the  confidence  of  the  Customs  Board 
and  had  access  to  the  information  contained  in  their  books.  There  are 
some  reasons  for  thinking  that  Mein  left  America  in  November,  1769, 
and  never  returned.  The  present  account  has  assumed,  for  good 
reasons,  that  he  was  not  away  from  Boston  for  any  perceptible  length 
of  time.  E.  g.,  vide  Hutchinson,  Afass.  Pay,  vol.  iii,  p.  260.  After  all, 
the  chief  consideration  is  that  the  articles  in  the  C/ironicte,  of  which  he 
was  universally  reputed  to  be  the  author,  continued  to  appear  without 
interruption  until  the  Chro?ncte  ceased  publication.  Professor  Andrews 
has  recently  brought  to  light  some  new  facts  concerning  Mein's  exper- 
iences in  Boston  in  "The  Boston  Merchants  and  the  Non-Importation 
Movement,"  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Puds.,  vol.  xix,  pp.  227-230. 


NON-IMPORTATION  l6i 

Mein's  first  blast  came  in  an  unsigned  article  in  the 
Chronicle  of  June  i,  1769.  Declaring  that  the  handbills, 
recently  circulated,  gave  the  impression  that  the  firms 
named  were  the  only  importers  of  British  goods  in  the 
city,  the  article  asserted  that  it  was  only  just  to  make 
known  the  truth.  An  exact  account  showed  that  twenty- 
one  vessels  had  arrived  from  Great  Britain  at  Boston 
from  January  i,  the  date  on  which  the  agreement  became 
operative,  to  June  i,  1769;  and  that  one  hundred  and 
ninety  different  persons,  many  of  them  signers  of  the 
agreement,  had  imported  162  trunks,  270  bales,  182  cases, 
233  boxes,  1 1 16  casks,  139  chests,  'J2  hampers,  and  other 
quantities,  all  carefully  detailed. 

The  attack  elicited  a  quick  response.  A  writer,  evi- 
dently speaking  for  the  Committee  of  Merchants,  replied 
in  the  Boston  Gazette  of  June  12.  In  the  number  of 
importers,  he  declared  that  Mein  included  almost  one 
hundred  belonging  to  other  ports,  also  clergymen, 
masters  of  vessels  and  private  persons  who  had  imported 
only  a  single  article  for  family  use.  He  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  Mein  had  stated  the  quantity  of  goods 
without  differentiating  between  those  permitted  and 
those  debarred  by  the  agreement  and  without  noting  the 
number  of  packages  imported  for  army  and  navy  use. 
Mein,  he  averred,  included  four  vessels  which,  but  for 
storms  and  other  delays,  would  have  reached  Boston  be- 
fore the  agreement  went  into  effect,  and  three  vessels 
from  Scotland,  belonging  to  strangers  who  had  come 
over  to  build  ships.  These  being  omitted  from  the  list, 
it  was  evident  that  the  m.erchandise  imported  by  the 
people  of  Boston  in  violation  of  the  agreement  was  "  tri- 
fling and  of  little  Value."  So  far  as  signers  were  con- 
cerned, the  report  of  the  merchants'  committee  of 
inspection  was  cited  to  prove  that  they  had  imported, 


i62  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

contrary  to  the  agreement,  only  14  cases,  27  chests,, 
mostly  of  oil,  36  casks  of  beer,  linseed  oil  and  cheese, 
50  hampers,  chiefly  of  empty  bottles,  and  15  bundles; 
all  of  which  had  been  immediately  placed  under  direction 
of  the  committee.  Not  a  single  article  of  woolens  nor 
any  kind  of  piece-goods  had  been  imported  by  the  signers. 
The  author  of  the  earlier  article  was  called  upon  to  pub- 
lish the  names  of  the  importers  and  to  point  out  any 
signers  who  had  failed  to  submit  their  goods  to  the 
committee  of  inspection, 

Mein  closed  the  discussion,  for  the  time,  simply  by 
announcing  in  his  issue  of  the  nineteenth  that  a  list  of 
importers  and  manifests,  from  which  his  facts  had  been 
drawn,  was  now  lodged  at  the  Chronicle  office,  and  could 
there  be  consulted  by  the  candid  and  impartial  public. 
Up  to  this  point,  the  chief  effect  of  Mein's  pugnacity  on 
public  opinion  concerning  him  was  his  expulsion  from 
the  Free  American  Fire  Society,  on  grounds  that  he  was 
an  importer  and  was  concerned  in  a  "  partial,  evasive  and 
scandalous  "  attack  on  the  respectable  merchants  of  the 
town.' 

^feealizing  the  necessity  for  more  effective  measures  of 
dealmg  with  importing  merchants,  the  Boston  trade 
proceeded  to  work  out  an  ingenious  system  of  boycott. 
At  a  meeting  of  July  26.  1769,  they  agreed  to  withhold 
their  business  from  any  vessel  which  should  load  at  a 
British  port  with  goods  forbidden  by  the  agreemen 
In  addition/ a  committee  was  appointed 'to  examine  the 
manifests  of  any  vessels  which  should  arrive  from  Great 
Britain  before  January  i,  177©,  andu©  insert  in  the  public 
prints  the  names  of  violators  of  the  agreement,  unless 
they  should  deliver  the  goods  into  charge  of  the  stand- 

'  Bos.  Gaz.  July  10,  1769. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


163 


ing'  committee  of  the  merchants.  Another  committee 
was  appointed  to  secure  a  subscription  of  Boston  inhab- 
itants to  boycott  those  men  whose  names  had  been  pub- 
lished in  the  handbills/?  A  few  days  later,  a  house-to- 
house  canvass  was  made  among  the  citizens  for  signa- 
tures to  buy  no  goods  debarred  by  the  merchants'  agree- 
ment, and  to  support  any  further  measures  of  the  mer- 
chants.'' Lieutenant  Governor  Hutchinson,  in  a  letter 
about  this  time,  wrote  angrily  that  merchants'  meetings 
**  are  called  and  held  by  adjournments,  whose  resolutions 
are  come  into.  Committees  appointed,  and  other  proceed- 
ings had  in  as  formal  a  manner  as  in  a  body  corporate 
legally  assembled  and  known  and  established  by  the  Con- 
stitution ;  and  those  meetings  have  had  such  effect  that 
.  .  .  most  of  the  Traders  who  until  now  had  firmness  to 
stand  out  have  joined  in  the  subscription  to  import  no 
goods."  3  Indeed,  of  the  importers  who  had  been  ex- 
posed by  the  handbill,  Jackson,  Simpson,  the  Selkrigs, 
Taylor  and  Fletcher  now  hastened  to  accept  the  agree- 
ment and  to  promise  that  their  fall  importations  would 
be  stored  with  the  Committee  of  Merchants.* 

Having  made  such  headway,  the  merchants  determined 
to  press  their  advantage.  At  a  meeting  at  Faneuil 
Hall  on  August  11,  they  voted  that/whereas  all  the  "Well 
Disposed  Merchants "  (note  well  the  expression !)  of 
almost  every  province  on  the  continent  had  resolved  on 
non-importation,  local  merchants  who  persisted  in  defy- 
ing the  agreement  "  must  be  considered  as  Enemies  to 

^ Mass.  Gaz.  July  31,   1769;  also  yV.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  Aug.  7. 

* M.  H.  S.  Ms.,  151,  I,  15.  This  non-mercantile  agreement,  dated 
July  31,  was  soon  signed  by  113  persons. 

'Letter  to  Hillsborough,  Aug.  8,  1769.  Brit.  Papers  {"Sparks 
Mss."),  vol.  i,  p.  III. 

*  Bos.  Gaz.,  Aug.  14,  1769  ;  N,  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  8,  1770. 


164  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  Constitution  of  their  Country,  and  must  expect  that 
those  who  have  any  Regard  for  it  will  endeavour  in  every 
constitutional  Way  to  prevent  their  Building  themselves 
up  on  the  ruin  of  their  Fellow-Citizens."  ^  Thereupon, 
the  names  of  the  following  men  were  ordered  to  be  in- 
serted in  the  newspapers  as  objects  of  boycott :  Theo- 
philus  Lillie,  McMasters  &  Co.,  T.  and  E,  Hutchinson 
and  Nathaniel  Rogers,  all  unrepentant  though  named  in 
the  original  handbills,  and,  in  addition,  John  Mein,  John 
Bernard  and  Richard  Clarke  &  Son.  Richard  Clarke 
was  another  nephew  of  Hutchinson.  John  Greenlaw, 
being  called  before  the  meeting  upon  charge  of  having 
bought  goods  of  violators  of  the  agreement,  acknowl- 
edged his  fault,  and  he  surrendered  the  goods  to  the 
custody  of  the  committee.^  A  few  days  later  Clarke  & 
Son,  who  had  been  published  as  importers,  fully  acceded 
to  the  agreement  and  were  ordered  to  be  reinstated  in 
the  public  estimation.' 

These  new  developments  brought  John  Mein  to  the 
firing-line  again.  In  the  Chronicle  of  August  17,  he 
devoted  almost  three  entire  pages  to  a  vindication  of 
his  conduct  and  leveled  a  charge  of  dishonesty  against 
the  signers  of  the  agreement.  In  his  various  occupa- 
tions, he  declared,  he  daily  supported  seventeen  people, 
fourteen  of  whom  lived  under  his  own  roof  and  most  of 
whom  would  have  lost  employment  if  he  had  signed  the 
agreement.  In  his  two  years  as  printer,  he  had  purchased 
something  like  £400  worth  of  paper  from  the  mill  at 
Milton.  He  employed  four  or  five  people  in  his  book- 
bindery  and  paid  his  foreman  a  yearly  salary  of  £69  6s.  8d., 
lawful  money.     Moreover,  it  was  notorious,  he  continued, 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Aug.  14,  1769 ;  also  A^.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  Aug.  28. 
'^Bos.  Gaz.  Aug.  21,  1769. 


NON-IMPORTATION  165 

that  the  non-importation  was  not  generally  observed. 
In  support  of  his  statement,  he  announced  his  design  to 
publish,  in  the  course  of  the  following  months,  a  detailed 
account  of  the  cargoes  of  the  vessels  which  had  arrived 
at  Boston  since  the  beginning  of  the  year.  He  began  by 
presenting  the  itemized  manifest  of  the  snow  /*///,  which 
had^rrived  at  Boston  on  June  i. 

y^his  was  the  opening  gun  of  a  bitter  campaign,  which 
coittinued  at  semi-weekly  intervals,  almost  without  in- 
terruption, uivtil  the  event  of  the  Boston  Massacre  in 
March,  1770.' yMein's  usual  course  was  to  place  at  the 
head  of  the  first  column  of  page  one  of  the  Chronicle  a 
copy  of  the  merchants'  agreement,  with  the  allowed 
articles  in  enlarged  black  letters  ;  then  to  follow  with  a 
trenchant  attack  on  the  good  faith  of  signers  of  the 
agreement ;  and  to  conclude  with  a  manifest,  which  pur- 
ported to  show,  by  name  and  item,  that  signers  were 
continuing  to  import  clandestinely.  Mein  revealed  him- 
self to  be  a  keen  and  relentless  disputant ;  he  utilized 
every  favorable  point  to  the  utmost,  and  was  a  past 
master  of  phrase  and  retort.  For  instance,  inasmuch  as 
the  merchants'  resolutions  of  August  1 1  had  alluded  to 
the  advocates  of  non-importation  as  the  "Well  Dis- 
posed," Mein  never  lost  a  chance  to  apply  the  term  to 
the  Committee  of  Merchants;  and  he  did  it  with  many  a 
satiric  turn  that  must  have  entirely  destroyed  the  peace 
of  mind  of  those  worthies. 

The  statement  of  "  the  Merchants  of  the  Town  of 
Boston"   on  August  28,  with  the  fusillade  of   personal 

'These  articles  were  published  during  the  period  August  17,  1769  to 
March  i,  1770.  After  the  issue  of  October  19,  the  publication  of  mani- 
fests, though  not  of  jibes  and  queries  directed  at  the  Committee  of 
Merchants,  ceased  until  December  11,  when  they  were  resumed.  Fifty- 
five  cargoes  were  listed  in  all. 


l66  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

vindications  that  followed,  was  a  fair  example  of  the 
answering  volleys  which  the  supporters  of  the  agreement 
delivered.'  Taking  the  five  manifests  which  had  been 
published  up  to  that  time,  they  analyzed  the  figures  care- 
fully and  showed  that  in  no  case  had  a  signer  deliberately 
sought  to  evade  the  spirit  of  the  agreement,  and  that 
when  a  fault  had  been  committed  unintentionally,  the 
goods  had  been  stored.  Their  analysis  of  the  manifest 
of  the  Ptii  will  suffice  for  purposes  of  illustration.  Of 
the  thirty-one  importers  interested  in  the  cargo,  only 
fifteen  were  Bostonians ;  and,  of  these,  only  four  were 
signers :  Timothy  Newell,  John  Rowe,  John  Erving  and 
the  Hubbards.  Newell  had  imported  tin  and  iron  plates, 
which,  it  was  stated,  though  not  inserted  in  the  original 
agreement  as  permissible,  were  so  understood  from  the 
beginning  and  had  since  been  made  so  by  express  vote, 
and  also  several  other  articles  open  to  importation  in 
other  provinces.  Rowe  had  imported  shot  and  lines, 
allowed  by  the  agreement,  and  blankets  and  lines,  con- 
signed to  him  for  use  of  the  army.  Erving  had  imported 
Irish  linen  and  beer,  which  had  been  ordered  prior  to 
the  agreement  and  were  now  under  care  of  the  commit- 
tee. The  goods  sent  to  the  Messrs.  Hubbard  had  been 
directed  to  their  care  for  Stephen  Ayrault,  the  Newport 
merchant.  Of  the  four  other  manifests  discussed  by  the 
committee,  three  of  the  vessels,  Lydia,  Last  Attempt 
and  Paoli,  were  owned  by  John  Hancock ;  and  each 
cargo  contained  articles  forbidden  by  the  agreement. 
In  one  instance,  that  of  N.  Green,  it  was  shown  that  the 
34  casks  of  pork,  which  he  had  imported,  had  originally 
been  sent  by  him  to  London  and  had  failed  of  sale.  In 
numerous  cases,  it  was  shown  that  the  packages  had  been 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Aug.  28,  1769;  also  Bos.  Nezvs-Letter,  Aug.  31. 


NON-IMPOR  TAT  ION 


167 


wrongly  labeled  in  the  manifests.  In  conclusion,  the 
committee  reiterated  their  former  position  that  the 
agreement  was  being  closely  obeyed,  except  by  a  few 
non-signers ;  and  Mein  was  charged  with  an  attempt  to 
misrepresent  and  defraud.-^ 

Replies  to  Mein's  attacks'xame  from  other  sources  as 
well,  usually  in  the  form  of  flat  disclaimers  from  the  in- 
dividual merchants  accused.'  Mein  again  paid  his  re- 
spects to  the  Committee  of  Merchants  in  a  lengthy  reply 
in  the  Chronicle  of  October  9  and  12.  He  made  much 
of  the  admission  that  Newell's  importations  were  ad- 
mitted on  June  i  although  not  made  an  allowed  article 
until  July  26,  a  palpable  injustice  to  other  dealers.  He 
had  "  good  reason "  to  believe  that  Rowe's  blankets 
were  not  for  army  use ;  and  he  demanded  to  know  just 
where  or  how  Erving's  importations  had  been  stored. 
As  for  N.  Green's  pork,  even  admitting  the  circumstances, 
was  pork  an  allowed  article?  "Do  the  Public  begin  to 
suspect,"  he  wrote  on  October  23  in  his  "Catechism  of 
the  'Well  Disposed',"  "that  a  certain  scheme  is  princi- 
pally calculated  to  crush  all  the  young  Merchants  and 
Importers,  that  the  trade  may  still  remain  in  the  hands 
of  a  few  grave  ^  well  disposed'  Dons,  who  are  believed 
to  be  exceedingly  ivell  stocked  with  Goods  ?y 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  charge  which  Mein 
made  was  against  John  Hancock,  merchant  prince  and 

'Thus,  John  Avery  denied  absolutely  that  he  had  imported  china 
and  British  linen  from  London  in  the  Stikey  and  declared  that  he  had 
imported  nothing  from  Great  Britain  for  two  years.  Bos.  News-Letter, 
Aug.  31,  1769.  Vide  statements  of  F.  Johonnot  and  Benj.  Andrews  in 
the  same  issue.  Francis  Green  declared  wrathily  that  he  "did  not  de- 
viate from  the  Agreement  in  any  Instance,  of  Course  did  not  import 
any  Tea,"  and  he  dubbed  Mein  a  "  Mushroom  Judge"  and  "conceited 
empty  Noddle  of  a  most  profound  Blockhead."  Ibid.,  Sept.  21.  For 
examples  of  Mein's  rejoinders,  vide  Bos.  C/iron.,  Sept.  4,  25. 


1 58  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

non-importer,  for  having  imported  five  bales  of  "  British 
Linen"  in  the  Lydia,  which  arrived  at  Boston  on  April 
i8,  1769.  As  that  gentleman  was  out  of  the  city,  his 
manager,  William  Palfrey,  came  to  his  defense  in  a  sworn 
statement  that  the  contents  of  the  bales  had  been  misre- 
presented by  Mein,  and  that  they  were,  in  reality,  "Rus- 
sia Duck,"  allowed  by  the  agreement.  Mein  replied  by 
publishing  a  copy  of  the  cocket,  certified  by  the  customs 
collector  and  comptroller,  which  attested  the  correctness 
of  his  description.  This  verbal  exchange  continued  for 
some  time,"  and  received  some  attention  in  the  Newport 
Mercury,  September  4,  1769,  where  it  was  observed  that 
Hancock  as  "one  of  the  foremost  of  the  Patriots  in  Boston 
.  .  .  would  perhaps  shine  more  conspicuously  ...  if  he 
did  not  keep  a  number  of  vessels  running  to  London  and 
back,  full  freighted,  getting  rich,  by  receiving  freight  on 
goods  made  contraband  by  the  Colonies."^  Hancock  him- 
self took  no  notice  of  Mein's  attack  until  a  letter  from  the 
New  York  Committee  of  Merchants  made  allusion  to  it ; 
and  in  a  signed  statement  he  announced  :  "This  is  Once 
For  All  to  certify  to  whom  it  may  concern,  That  I 
have  not  in  one  single  Instance,  directly  or  indirectly, 
deviated  from  said  Agreement ;  and  I  now  publickly  defy 
all  Mankind  to  prove  the  Contrary." 3  The  truth 
seems  to  be  that  the  worst  irregularity  of  which  he  was 
guilty  was  an  occasional  carelessness  on  the  part  of  his 
ship-masters  in  receiving  prohibited  goods  as  freight ; 
and   this  did   not  become  an   offense   under  the  Boston 

^  For  this  dispute,  vide  Bos.  Chron.,  Aug.  21,  28,  Sept.  4,  18,  Oct. 
9;  and  Bos.  News-Letter,  Aug.  31,  1769. 

'"Civis"  in  the  A'".  H.  Gaz.,  July  6,  13,  1770,  expressed  surprise 
that  "  Mr.  Hancock  would  suffer  a  consignment  of  35  chests  of  tea  to 
a  gentleman  in  this  town,  to  come  in  a  vessel  of  his  from  London  ..." 

'Under  date  of  January  4.     A'.  Y.  Jotirn.  Jan.  18,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTATION  1 6^ 

agreement  until  July  26,  1769.'  The  discrepancy  be- 
tween the  description  in  the  manifest  and  the  actual  con- 
tents of  Hancock's  bales  was,  in  all  probability,  due  to 
clerical  carelessness  or  possibly  to  the  notorious  practice 
of  merchants  to  doctor  their  freight  lists  in  order  to 
evade  export  duties  in  England. 

In  the  Chro7iicle  of  October  19,  Mein  announced  that, 
if  the  "'well  disposed'  Committee"  did  not  discontinue 
"  their  abusive  hints  and  publications  either  here  or  at 
New  York,  the  Public  shall  be  entertained  with  Anec- 
dotes of  the  lives  and  practices  of  many  of  these  Worthies 
as  individuals ;  for  all  due  pains  shall  be  taken  to  unkennel 
them ;  and  already  ...  a  great  store  of  materials  has 
been  collected,"  This^piomisei expose,  however,  never 
progressed  further  than  a  preliminary  description,  a  week 
later,  of  "The  Characters  of  some  who  are  thought  to 
be  '  W.  D.',"  wherein  much  was  said  of  "  Deacon  Clod- 
pate,  alias  Tribulation  Turnery,  Esq.,"  "William  the 
Knave," ""  and  other  personages  scarcely  recognizable  by 
readers  of  the  twentieth  century.  A  few  weeks  later, 
Mein  collected  the  various  controversial  articles  and 
published  them  in  a  pamphlet  of  one  hundred  and  thirty 

^Hancock's  vessel,  Boston  Packet,  arrived  on  August  10  with  54 
chests  of  tea  in  her  cargo.  Hancock  wrote  on  Sept.  6,  1769  to  his 
London  representatives,  Haley  &  Hopkins:  "The  merchants  of  this 
town  having  come  into  a  new  agreement  not  to  suffer  any  freight  to  be 
taken  on  board  their  vessels,  I  beg  you  would  note  the  same,  &  prevent 
any  of  it,  except  Coals,  Hemp.  Duck  &  Grindstones  being  put  on  board 
any  of  my  vessels.  You  will  please  to  inform  my  ship  masters  that 
they  may  conform  themselves  accordingly."  Brown,  John  Hancovk 
His  Book,  p.  166. 

^Probably  John  Barrett  and  William  Palfrey.  Barrett  had  imported 
woolcards  but  had  been  credited  on  the  manifest  with  '"turnery."  This 
labored  performance  gave  "  great  ofifense  "  to  the  non-importing  party, 
according  to  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  259. 


170 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


pages,  under  the  title,  State  of  the  httportations  troin 
Great  Britain  into  Bostoji,  from  Jan.  1769  to  Aug.  17, 
1769.''  Editions  were  gotten  out  the  following  year 
which  tabulated  the  later  importations.  These  pam- 
phlets were  widely  read  in  the  other  commercial  prov- 
inces and  were  frequently  dispersed  by  employees  of  the 
Customs  Board.' 

,<nrhe  merits  of  the  dispute  between  Mein  and  the  mer- 
chants may  now  be  sufficiently  clear.  The  strength  of 
Mein's  position  lay  in  being  a  literalist  in  his  interpreta- 
tion of  the  agreement;  in  failing  to  differentiate  between 
permissible  and  prohibited  importations ;  and  in  testing 
the  efficacy  of  the  agreement  by  examining  the  importa- 
tions of  non-signers  as  well  as  signers,  of  outsiders  as 
well  as  Bostonians,  of  non-merchants  as  well  as  mer- 
chants. The  success  of  the  non-importation  regulation, 
\/'  on  the  other  hand,  lay  in  the  sagacious  exercise  of  a  rule 
of  reason  by  the  Committee  of  Merchants  with  regard 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  agreement,  meantime  placing 
stress  upon  the  performance  of  signers,  and  bringing  all 
possible  pressure  to  bear  upon  recalcitrant  merchants. 
This  was  the  course  ^f  action  that  was  adroitly  carried 
out  by  the  merchants^ 

While  Mein  was  the  one  unrelenting  opponent  of  non- 
importation, it  should  not  be  thought  that  he  was  with- 
out earnest  support.  <X)pponents  of  non-importation 
began,  after  a  time,  to  perceive  the  apparent  contradic- 
tion between  the  methods  of  the  merchants  and  their 
shibboleths. \  Shall  we  "  still  pretend  to  talk  of  Liberty, 
Property  and  Rights  without  a  blush?"  demanded 
"Martyr."  "Have  we  not  .  .  .  established  courts  of 
inquisition  in  the  colonies  unparalleled  in  any^^age  or  na- 

'^  Boston  Chron.,  Nov.  20,  1769.  ^  Pa.  Journ.,  June  28,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTATION  171 

tion?  where  .  .  .  was  there  ever  an  instance  of  men,  free 
men,  being  summoned  by  illegal  and  mock  authority  to 
answer  for  actions  as  offences,  which  are  warranted  by 
the  laws  of  the  land,  the  law  of  nations  and  the  law  of 
God  ? — '  for  he  that  will  not  provide  for  his  family  is  worse 
than  an  infidel'."  '  Theophilus  Lillie,  one  of  the  pro- 
scribed merchants,  declared  :  "  I  had  rather  be  a  slave 
under  one  master,  for  if  I  know  who  he  is,  I  may  per- 
haps be  able  to  please  him,  than  a  slave  to  an  hundred 
or  more  who  I  don't  know  w^here  to  find  nor  what  they 
will  expect  from  me."^''  Another  merchant,  Colburn 
Barrell,  placed  his  failure  to  re-ship  certain  goods,  as  he 
had  agreed,  partly  on  the  ground  that  "  it  was  an  un- 
lawful agreement  made  with  what  I  must  call  an  unlaw- 
ful assembly ;  such  an  agreement  as  both  the  laws  of  my 
Maker  and  my  Country  forbid  me  to  stand  to."^  He 
maintained,  further,  that^the  laboringmen  in  town  and 
country  could  better  afford  to  pay  the  Townshend  duties 
the  remainder  of  their  lives  than  to  pay  the  prices  ex- 
acted by  the  merchants  that  winter  for  the  necessary 
articles  of  baize  and  other  woolens.*  >  Another  newspaper 
writer  argued  pleasantly  that  he  thought  all  marrying 
should  discontinue  until  the  revenue  acts  should  be  re- 
pealed. "Those  who  marry,"  he  observed,  "may  possi- 
bly have  children ;  and  if  we  have  one  spark  of  genuine 
Liberty  animating  our  breasts,  can  we  bear  the  thought 
of  transmitting  the  most  abject  slavery  to  another  gen- 
eration ?     Besides,  the  Ministry  at  home,  when  they  see 

^  Bos.   Chron.,  Jan.   15,   1770.     Vide  also  "A   Bostonian "  in  ibid., 
Feb.  5. 
''Mass.  Gaz.,  Jan.  11,  177c;  also  Bos.  Cliron.,  Jan.  15. 
*Mass.  Gaz.  &  News- Letter,  Nov.  17,  1769. 
^■Bos.  Chron.,  Dec.  11,  1769. 


172 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S-1776 


our  fixed  determination  to  depopulate  the  country,  will 
be  more  shockingly  mortified  than  ...  by  any  of  our 
resolutions  to  impoverish  by  Non-Importation."  In 
short,  he  confided  that  his  plan  was  to  have  all  the 
women  stored  and  a  committee  appointed  for  keeping  the 
keys,  of  which  he  himself  should  be  chairman.  "  If  any 
man  should  refuse  to  deliver  up  his  wife  or  daughter 
upon  such  an  interesting  occasion,  he  must  be  deemed 
An  Enemy  To  His  Country."  '^^ 
<Thomas  Hutchinson  got  close  to  the  root  of  the  situ- 
ation in  frequent  letters  to  the  home  government.  He 
denounced  "  the  confederacy  of  the  merchants  "  as  unlaw- 
ful, and  showed  that  statutes  of  Parliameat  would  al- 
ways be  nullified  in  America  "  if  combinations  to  prevent 
the  operation  of  them  and  to  sacrifice  all  who  conform 
U'-'"'  to  Jhem  are  tolerated,  or  if  towns  are  allowed  to  meet 
and  vote  that  measures  for  defeating  such  acts  are  legal." 
With  the  utmost  persistence,  he  urged  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment for  punishing  all  persons  concerned  in  such  con- 
federacies.' 

Meantime,  in  face  of  Mein's  virulent  efforts,  more  and 
more  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  little  band  of 
obdurate  importers.^  On  October  4,  1769,  the  town  meet- 
ing, ruled  by  the  non-importers,  voted  its  indignation  that 

^Boston  Chtoji.,  Jan.  18,  1770. 

'  Letters  quoted  by  Hosmer,  Huichinsoti ,  pp.  166-168,  437-438  ;  Wells, 
Samuel  Adams,  vol.  i,  pp.  281,  301. 

^  Thus,  the  Seniors  at  Harvard  College  resolved  never  again  to  deal 
with  John  Mein.  Bos.  Gas.,  Sept.  4,  1769.  The  Committee  of  Mer- 
chants published  the  name  of  a  storekeeper  who,  under  false  repre- 
sentations, had  disposed  of  two  chests  of  tea  which  had  come  from 
the  store  of  T.  and  E.  Hutchinson.  Ibid.,  Sept.  11.  The  merchants 
called  before  them  three  dealers  who  had  imported  tabooed  goods  and 
induced  them  to  re-ship  the  goods.    Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Oct.  5- 


NON-IMPORTATION  jy^ 

any  citizens  should  persist  in  importation,  and  gave  an 
appearance  of  legality  to  the  merchants'  boycott  of  August 
II  by  declaring  that  the  seven  men  then  proscribed  (not 
counting  the  repentant  Clarke  &  Son)  should  be  entered 
by  name  on  the  town  records  "  that  posterity  may  know 
who  those  persons  were  that  preferred  their  little  private 
advantages  to  the  common  interest  of  all  the  colonies  .  .  .  "  ^ 
Armed  with  this  resolution,  the  merchants,  who  met  the 
same  day,  sought  again  to  convince  the  importers  of  the 
error  of  their  ways.  A  committee  of  the  merchants  con- 
ferred with  T.  and  E.  Hutchinson,  at  their  own  request, 
and  these  gentlemen  felt  impelled  to  accede  to  every  article 
of  the  agreement,  and  they  agreed  to  surrender  eighteen 
chests  of  tea,  recently  imported,  as  well  as  any  goods  which 
might  arrive  later.  A  letter  of  the  lieutenant  governor, 
written  on  the  next  day  to  an  English  friend,  explained  the 
action  of  his  sons :  "  My  sons  tell  me  they  have  sold  their 
T  to  advantage  .  .  .  tho'  with  the  utmost  difficulty;  but 
the  spirit  rose  too  high  to  be  opposed  any  longer,  and  be- 
sides the  danger  to  their  persons  they  had  good  reason  to 
fear  there  was  a  design  to  destroy  the  T;"  and  he  con- 
cluded by  observing  that :  "  It  was  one  of  the  sellers  of 
Dutch  T  who  made  the  greatest  clamour;  and  had  they  im- 
ported any  other  goods  than  T.  they  would  not  have  sub- 
mitted." "  Theophilus  Lillie  entered  into  similar  engage- 
ments with  the  merchants.  McMasters,  Rogers  and  Ber- 
nard returned  answers  "highly  insolent;"  and  Mein,  for 
obvious    reasons,    was    not    approached.      The    merchants 

^  Mass.  Gaz.   &  News-Letter,  Oct.  5,   1769;   also  Bos.   Town  Rccs. 

( 1 758- 1769),  w-  297-298. 

^  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  386.  Lillie  was  likewise  intimidated  by 
popular  clamor,  according  to  his  statement  in  the  Mass.  Gas.,  Jan.  11, 
1770. 


174 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


voted  unanimously  that  these  four  men  "  were  unworthy 
of  the  future  countenance  and  favour  of  the  public  in  any 
respect,"  and  appointed  a  committee  to  publish  the  nam.es 
of  all  persons  who  should  thereafter  deal  with  them/ 

Several  days  later,  Nathaniel  Rogers  gave  up  his  op- 
position to  the  agreement;  and  the  number  of  firms  adver- 
tised as  "  those  who  AUDACIOUSLY  continue  to  counter- 
act the  UNITED  SENTIMENTS  of  the  Body  of  Mer- 
chants thro'out  North-America "  was  reduced  to  three." 
The  Committee  of  Merchants  continued  its  work  of  super- 
vising the  enforcement  of  non-importation  with  great  assi- 
duity; and  its  transactions  were  made  public  from  time  to 
time.  About  the  middle  of  December,  the  names  of  A.  and 
E.  Cummings,  of  Boston,  and  Henry  Barnes,  a  Marlboro 
trader,  were  added  to  the  list  of  those  ''  audaciously  "  of- 
fending.^ 

^nrhose  importers,  who  had  become  eleventh-hour  con- 
vent to  non-importation,  had  yielded  chiefly  on  the  sup- 
position that  the  agreement  would  expire  on  January  i, 
1770.  Imagine,  then,  their  consternation  when,  on  October 
1  /y,  the  merchants  made  the  operation  of  the  agreement  con- 
^tingent  upon  the  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties!^  Still 
other  importers  began  to  regard  pledges  that  had  been  wrune 
from  them  through  intimidation  as  having  no  binding  f orce.^ 
This  was  a  situation  pregnant  with  trouble.  Late  in 
December,  the  merchants'  committee  of  inspection  made  an 

^  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Oct.  9,   1769;   also  N.   Y.  Gas.   &  Merc, 
Oct.  16. 

''Bos.  Gas.,  Oct.  9,  1769;  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Lettcr,  Oct.  19. 

^  Bos.  Gas.,  Dec.  11,  1769;  also  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Dec.  14. 

*  Ibid.,  Nov.  9,  17,  1769;  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  266. 

'  E.  g.,  vide  statements  of  John  Taylor  and  Theophilus  Lillie,  Bos. 
Eve.  Post,  Jan.  15,  1770,  and  Mass.  Gas.,  Jan.  11. 


NON-IMPORTATION  I-- 

examination  of  the  goods  which  had  been  stored  by  the 
various  merchants  in  their  own  shops  in  rooms  for  which 
the  committee  held  keys.  They  found  a  considerable  quan- 
tity wanting  in  the  instance  of  John  Taylor  and  Theophilus 
Lillie,  and  they  heard  several  ether  merchants  declare  their 
intention  to  sell  their  stored  goods  after  January  i,  1770. 
A  meeting  of  the  Boston  merchants  on  December  28  voted 
a  boycott  against  Taylor  and  Lillie  and  all  those  who  should 
trade  with  them.  The  committee  of  inspection  were  di- 
rected to  examine  all  stored  goods  at  least  once  a  week; 
and  their  diligence  brought  immediate  result  in  placing 
Benjamin  Greene  &  Company  under  the  ban  on  the  follow- 
ing day.^  But,  in  spite  of  these  measures,  other  merchants, 
the  Hutchinsons  among  them,  were  not  deterred  from  re- 
newing the  sale  of  their  merchandise  after  January  i. 

The  merchant  body  was  evidently  facing  another  crisis. 
On  Wednesday,  January  17,  1770,  a  large  number  of  the 
merchants  gathered  at  Faneuil  Hall  to  consider  more  drastic 
measures  than  hitherto  had  been  employed,  and  they  ad- 
journed from  day  to  day,  increasing  their  numbers  with  each 
adjournment."  It  was  claimed  by  the  Chronicle  that  pains 
had  been  taken  to  induce  many  workingmen  to  swell  the 
attendance — men  "  who  find  it  their  interest  to  proscribe 
foreign  commerce  because  they  can  better  dispose  of  the 
articles  they  make  at  any  extravagant  price."  ^  William 
Phillips  acted  as  moderator.  At  the  first  day's  session, 
the  recreant  merchants  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
meeting.  When  they  refused,  committees  were  sent  to  wait 
on  them  separately,  but  with  no  result  save  a  verbal  promise 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  i,  1770;  also  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Jan.  18. 

■■'  For  these  proceedings,  vide  letter  of  S.  Cooper,  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol. 
viii,  pp.  314-316;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  22,  29,  1770;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Feb. 
I,  8,  IS,  Mch.  I ;  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  pp.  266-267. 

'  Bos.  Chroii.,  Feb.  5,  1770.    Article  by  "  A  Bostonian." 


1/6 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 


from  the  Hutchinsons  to  turn  over  their  teas  to  the  com- 
mittee of  inspection.  Even  this  slight  advantage  was  lost 
when  the  Hutchinsons  refused,  on  the  next  day,  to  perform 
their  promise.  The  meeting  now  voted  unanimously  that 
the  offending  merchants,  eight  in  number,^  had  forfeited  all 
favor  and  confidence  of  their  fellow-citizens.  The  whole 
body  of  more  than  a  thousand  persons  then  proceeded,  in 
impressive  and  orderly  array,  to  the  houses  or  stores  of 
each  of  these  men;  and,  through  William  Molineux  as 
spokesman,  demanded  that  the  goods,  which  had  once  been 
placed  in  store,  should  be  immediately  deposited  with  the 
committee  of  inspection.  Only  Gary  made  the  concession 
demanded.  At  the  Hutchinson  home,  no  one  was  permitted 
to  enter,  but  His  Honor  the  Lieutenant  Governor  threw  up 
the  window  and  chose  to  regard  the  crowd  as  making  a 
tumultuous  and  threatening  application  to  him  in  his  official 
capacity.  Molineux  insisted  that  they  had  come  in  peace- 
able fashion  to  confer  with  his  sons  about  "  their  dishonour- 
able Violation  of  their  own  contract;''  whereupon  Hutchin- 
son replied  angrily  that  "  a  contract  without  a  consider- 
ation was  not  valid  in  law."  But  under  the  influence  of 
cooler  thought,  he  sent  for  the  moderator  early  next  morn- 
ing and  effected  arrangements  for  his  sons,  by  which  the 
teas  that  remained  unsold  were  delivered  to  the  committee 
and  the  equivalent  in  money  paid  over  for  the  balance.  The 
body  of  merchants  met  later  in  the  day  and  adjourned  until 
the  Tuesday  following,  in  order  to  give  the  other  delinquents 
further  time  to  make  their  peace.  In  the  interim,  the 
Greenes  repented  of  their  ways ;  but  Taylor,  Lillie,  Rogers 
and  Jackson  continued  obdurate. 

On  Tuesday,  January  23,  the  merchants  voted  to  with- 

^  John  Taylor,  Theophilus  Lillie,  Greene  &  Son,  T.  and  E.  Hutchinson, 
Nathaniel  Rogers,  William  Jackson  and  Nathaniel  Gary. 


NON-IMPORTATION  ^yy 

hold  from  these  four  men  "  not  only  all  commercial  dealings 
but  every  Act  and  Office  of  common  Civility."     Then  turn- 
ing their  attention  to  John  Mein  and  the  merchants  who  had 
been  placed  on  the  proscribed  list  prior  to  the  recent  un- 
pleasantness, they  voted  that  "  they  deserve  to  be  driven 
to  that  Obscurity  from  which  they  originated  and  to  the  Hole 
of  the  Pit  from  whence  they  were  digged."     The  proceed- 
ings of  that  day  were  spread  upon  handbills,  distributed 
through    the   nearby   provinces    and    pasted    up    over   the 
chinmey-pieces  of  the  better  known  public  houses. 
,/rhe  lieutenant  governor  took  occasion,  on  this  day,  to 
make  a  trial  of  strength  between  the  merchants  and  the 
government.     For  some  months,  he  had  been  trying  to  con- 
vince his  council  that  "  the  Confederacy  of  the  Merchants 
and  the  proceedings  of  the  town  of  Boston  "  were  "  un- 
warrantable," but  he  could  not  persuade  a  majority  to  his 
view.^     He  now  decided  to  act  without  the  consent  of  his 
council;  and,  while  the  merchants  were  in  the  midst  of  their 
discussions  at  Faneuil  Hall,  he  sent  the  sheriff  with  a  mes- 
sage denouncing  their  present  meeting  as  unjustifiable  "  by 
any  authority  or  colour  of  law,"  and  their  house-to-house 
marchings  en  masse  as  conducive  to  terror  and  dangerous 
in  tendency.     As  representative  of  the  crown,  he  required 
them  to  disperse  and  "  to  forbear  all  such  unlawful  as- 
semblies for  the  future  .  .  ."  ^    'Later,  by  dint  of  impor- 
tunity,  the  lieutenant  governor  succeeded   in   getting  the 
cpuncil  to  approve  his  action  by  a  bare  majority.     As  for 
dhe  merchants,  they  merely  paused  long  enough  to  vote  their 
unanimous  opinion  that  their  meeting  was  lawful,  and  re- 
sumed their  transactions.^ 

^  Letters  of  Hutchinson  in  Brh.  Papers  ("  Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  i,  p. 
114,  and  N.  Engl.  Chron.,  June  22,  1775. 

"^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  29,  1770;  M.  H.  S.  Ms.,  61J,  no;  Hutchinson, 
Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  pp.  267-268. 


178 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


The  renewed  activity  of  the  merchants  drew  another 
volley  from  Mein.  The  Chronicle  of  January  22,  1770, 
published  an  itemized  list  of  the  dutied  goods  imported  into 
the  port  of  Boston  during  the  year  1769,  with  the  names 
of  the  persons  who  had  paid  the  duties.  Tea,  paper,  green 
glass  and  painters'  colors  were  the  most  frequent  entries; 
and,  although  most  of  the  goods  had  gone  to  notorious  im- 
porters, the  names  of  some  of  the  "  Well  Disposed  "  were 
on  the  list  also,  especially  for  consignments  of  glass. 
These  charges  were  answered  by  signed  statements  of  the 
various  merchants  accused.^  The  glass  was,  in  some  in- 
stances, alleged  to  be  bottles  containing  drugs,  etc. ;  in  others, 
consignments  for  persons  in  Rhode  Island  and  New  Hamp- 
shire addressed  in  care  of  local  merchants.  Mein  replied 
in  the  Chronicle  of  February  i ,  analyzing  these  explanations, 
accepting  some  as  satisfactory  and  rejecting  others.  xThe 
career  of  the  Chronicle  was  fast  drawing  to  a  close.  Its 
subscription  list  was  depleted ;  its  advertising  columns  were 
neglected  by  the  non-importers;  Mein  himself  was  being 
prosecuted  for  debt  by  John  Hancock  in  behalf  of  London 
creditors ;  ^  and  his  physical  whereabouts  were  unknown. 
On  June  25,  the  Chronicle  closed  its  meteoric  careep^with 
the  commonplace  statement  to  subscribers  that  "  the 
Chronicle,  in  the  present  state  of  affairs,  cannot  be  carried 
on,  either  for  their  entertainment  or  the  emolument  of  the 
Printers  .  .  ."^ 
II  ^Q'ublic  opinion  was  thereafter  entirely  molded  by  the 
'■  Committee  of  Merchants.     Through  a  strange  transposition 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  29,  1770;  Bos.  Gas.,  Jan.  29. 

^  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  p.  94;  Murray,  J.,  Letters  (N.  M. 
Tiffany,  ed.),  pp.   169-171,   173-174. 

'  In  May,  1772,  Mein  petitioned  Parliament  for  compensation  for  his 
losses  while  "  endeavoring  to  support  Administration  at  the  time  of 
the  late  American  Revenue  Acts."    Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Aug.  10,  1772. 


NON-IMPORTA  TION  I  -r, 

of  terms,  people  had  come  to  speak  of  merchandise,  legally 
imported  but  brought  in  contrary  to  the  agreement,  as 
"  contraband." J^"  Tea  from  Holland  may  lawfully  be  sold," 
wrote  Hutchinson.  "  Its  a  high  crime  to  sell  any  from 
England."  ^  The  Customs  Board  were  now  without  an 
organ  in  Boston.  However,  on  August  2y,  they  succeeded 
in  inserting  in  the  New  York  Gazette  and  Weekly  Mercury 
a  statement  of  British  importations  to  Boston  from  Janu- 
anjr  I  to  June  19,  1770,  filling  five  columns  of  that  journal. 
I^The  high  tension  which  public  affairs  had  reached  ripened 
the  public  mind  for  violence?^  Already  in  1768,  popular 
demonstrations  in  behalf  of  the  smugglers  had  caused  the 
stationing  of  troops  in  Boston.  In  September,  1769,  had 
occurred  the  affray  between  James  Otis  and  one  of,  t^e 
customs  commissioners  at  the  British  Coffee  Hous6-^ati 
affair  which  the  radicals  spoke  of  as  "  the  intended  as- 
sassination of  Mr.  Otis."f  Sometime  later,  John  Mein 
and  his  partner  had  been  assaulted  while  walking  along 
King  Street;  and  before  the  mob  would  desist,  the  two 
regiments  had  to  be  ordered  to  their  arms.^  Thereafter, 
the  customs  officials  and  army  officers  occupied  the  bar- 
room of  the  coffee  house  to  the  exclusion  of  the  citizens  of 
Boston,  until  the  fact  was  noted,  when  a  group  of  the 
radicals  made  it  their  business  to  frequent  the  place  in 
order  to  assert  their  equal  rights.* 

Vfbe  zeal  of  some  school  children  over  non-importation 
brought  on  the  first  death  of  a  townsman.^  vOn  Thursday 

^Letter  to  Hillsborough,  Apr.  27,  1770;  Ma^s.  Arch.,  vol.  xxv,  p.  391. 
^  Palfrey  to  John  Wilkes;  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  47,  P-  211. 
^  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  pp.  259-261. 
*  Letter  of  Thomas  Young,  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  xi,  p.  7. 
^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Feb.  26,  Mch.  5,  1770;  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  269-270. 


l8o  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

morning,  February  22,  1770,  some  boys  placed  a  crude 
figure  representing  four  importers,  in  front  of  Theophilus 
Lillie's  door.  Richardson/'  an  "  infamous  Informer, "Tre- 
monstrated  with  the  youths,  and  finally  endeavored  to  de- 
stroy the  effigyTi  Failing  in  this,  he  retreated  to  his  house 
nearby  to  the  shrill  jeers  of  ''Informer!  Informer!"  Here 
he  was  joined  by  his  wife  and  a  man;  and  the  two  sides 
pelted  each  other  with  rubbish  until  the  better  marksman- 
ship of  the  children  was  clearly  established.  Then  from 
inside  the  house,  Richardson  fired  several  times  into  the 
crowd,  killing  Christopher  Snider,  an  eleven-year-old  boy, 
and  wounding  the  little  son  of  Captain  John  GoreT?  Snider's 
funeral  was  made  the  occasion  for  a  great  demonstration; 
and  the  lad  became  the  "  little  hero  and  first  martyr  to  the 
no^le  cause." 

-^Less  than  two  weeks  later  occurred  the  unfortunate  street- 
attray,  which  was  glorified  by  the  radicals  as  the  "  Boston 
Maissacre."/  It  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the  festering 
ill-feeling,  which  had  been  caused  by  the  altercations  over 
smuggling-  and  non-importation  and  by  the  unaccustomed 
presence  of  troops  in  the  midst  of  a  civil  population.  The 
familiar  story  of  the  night  of  IMarch  the  fifth  need  not  be 
recounted  here.  Like  earlier  clashes,^  the  trouble  was  begun 
by  irresponsible  youths  on  the  street ;  but  it  closed  with 
the  fatal  shooting  of  five  men  and  the  wounding  of  several 
others  by  the  soldiers.X.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  shots 
into  the  crowd  were  fired  from  the  windows  of  the  custom 
house  nearby.^  \\^hile  the  bloodshed  was  wholly  accidental. 
the  radicals  immediately  made  it  a  pretext  for  procuring 
the  removal  of  the  soldiers  to  Castle  William  in  the  harbor, 

*  On  this  point,  vide  Channing,  History  of  United  States,  vol.  iii,  pp. 
iig-120  n.  For  a  different  view,  vide  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  279-280.     Vide  also  r^Iurray,  Letters,  p.  165. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


1«I 


where  the  Customs  Board  found  it  prudent  to  join  them 
foiua  timej 

'Resorts  to  mob  violence  now  became  more  f requentTf *"■ 
When  Hutchinson  sought  to  get  a  wealthy  importer  to  pro- 
mote an  association  in  opposition  to  non-importation,  he 
was  told  that  such  a  project  would  only  serve  to  expose  the 
signers  to  "  popular  rage."  ^  Nathaniel  Rogers,  the  un- 
redeemed, was  forced  to  flee  the  Boston  mob  only  to  find 
conditions  equally  bad  in  New  York,  his  place  of  refuge ; 
and  he  returned  to  Boston  to  sue  humbly  but  fruitlessly  for 
a  restoration  to  public  favor  at  the  hands  of  the  Committee 
of  Merchants.^  One  of  the  proscribed  McAlasters  was 
carted  about  Boston  by  a  mob  on  June  19  and  saved  from 
a  "  suit  of  the  modern  mode  "  only  by  his  promise  that  he 
would  at  once  depart  the  town.*  "  Boston  people  are  run 
mad,"  wrote  Hutchinson  on  August  26.  "  The  frenzy  was 
not  higher  when  they  banished  my  pious  great-grandmother, 
when  they  hanged  the  Quakers,  when  they  afterwards 
hanged  the  poor  innocent  witches  .  .  ."  ^ 
l-^^^ie  intense  feeling  aroused  by  the  Massacre  undoubt-  ^ 
edly  put  new  life  into  the  non-importation  cause  in  New 
England  at  a  time  when  sentiment  in  its  favor  was  waning 
throughout  the  continent  On  March  13,  the  town  of 
Boston  appointed  a  committee  to  circulate  an  agreement 
among  the  shopkeepers  against  the  sale  of  any  more  tea 
until  the  duties  should  be  removed ;  and  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  twelve  dealers  responded.  On  the  nineteenth,  the 
town,  by  unanimous  vote,  entered  in  the  town  records  the 

'  Letters  of  S.  Cooper,  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  317,  319. 
^  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxv,  pp.  393-394. 

*^  Ibid.,  vol.  xxvi,  pp.  488,  491;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Alay  21,  June  it,  1770. 
*  Ibid.,  June  25,  1770. 
^  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  540. 


I«2 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


names  of  all  those  proscribed  by  the  merchants  on  January 
23.  A  week  later  it  was  decided  by  the  town  that  three 
ships  should  be  constructed  in  order  to  give  employment  to 
the  poor/  In  the  following  two  months,  the  merchants 
rejected  several  offers  of  importers  and  Scotch  merchants 
to  construct  ships  because  of  the  invariable  condition  that 
the^latter  should  have  the  privilege  of  a  free  sale  of  goods. ^ 
^^^'^hat  degree  of  success  did  the  n^i-importers  attain  in 
enforcing  the  agreement  at  Boston  ?  //  As  already  stated, 
trade  statistics  are  not  satisfactory  on  this  point,  as  no  dis- 
tinction was  made  between  allowed  and  prohibited  articles, 
or  between  importation  into  Massachusetts  and  into  New 
England  in  general.  And  it  should  be  recalled  that  two 
provinces  of  New  England  were  admittedly  dilatory  or 
derelict  in  their  professions  of  non-importation^^Neverthe- 
less,  even  such  figures  show  a  decrease  of  British  imports 
of  almost  fifty  per  cent,  the  imports  from  Great  Britain  into 
all  New  England  falling  from  £430,806  in  1768  to  £223,694 
in  the  following  year.^  It  is  certain  that  Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson  believed  that  the  non-im.portation  agree- 
ment was  well  enforced,  and  that  in  contrast  to  the  forces 
supporting  it  the  powers  of  the  government  were  insignifi- 
cant.* The  retired  Governor  Bernard  informed  a  commit- 
tee of  the  Privy  Council  in  June,  1770,  that  "a  sort  of 
State  Inquisition  "  had  been  erected  in  Boston  and  that  the 
agreements  "  were  intirely  done  by  force  and  to  this  Hour 

^  Bos.  Tozvn  Recs.  (1770-1777),  pp.  12-13,  16-17,  20. 
^  Bos.  Gas.,  Apr.  9,  May  7,  1770. 

*  Macpherson.  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  p.  486,  494-495.  The  figures 
for  the  year  1770  are  even  less  informing,  as  trade  was  re-opened  in 
October  of  that  year.  Nevertheless,  only  £394,451  was  imported  as 
compared  with  £1,420,119  in  1771.    Ihid.,  pp.  508,  518-519. 

*  Hosmer,  Hutchinson,  pp.  166-168,  437-438. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION  I  g^ 

intirely  effected  by  having  a  trained  Mob."  ^  \  It  would 
seem  that  two  friendly  eye-witnesses  of  these  events  were 
singularly  restrained  in  their  judgments  on  the  execution 
of  the  non-importation  regulation.  Wrote  William  Palfrey : 
"i^^  agreement  has  been  as  generally  and  strictly  adhered 
to  as  was  possible  from  the  nature  of  so  extensive  an  under- 
taking, notwithstanding  all  the  opposition  it  has  met  with 
from  a  few  individuals."  "  And  said  Dr.  Andrew  Eliot 
in  a  private  letter :  "  That  there  hath  been  deceit  am.ong 
some  individuals  cannot  be  doubted.  -But  the  Town  in  gen- 
eral has  been  honest,  and  has  suffered  incredibly*  more,  I 
am  persuaded,  than  any  Town  on  the  continent."  S  Even 
that  exacting  radical,  Sam  Adams,  wrote  to  a'  congenial 
spirit :  "  Thro  the  Influence  of  tKeTTom^fs  &  Torie§>,  Boston 
has  been  made  to  appear  in  an  odious  Light.  «dLhe  Mer- 
chants in  general  have  punctually  abode  by  their  Agreement, 
to  their  very  great  private  loss."  *  In  view  of  all  the  evi- 
dence, these  seem  qpnclusions  which  the  student  of  history 
may  fairly  accept.  \ 

^^Outside  of  the  environs  of  Boston,  the  problem  of  secur- 
ing enforcement  of  the  non-importation  in  other  ports  and 
towns  of  Massachusetts  also  presented  some  difficulties. V 
It  proved  difficult  to  scrutinize  the  conduct  of  Falmoutli 
on  remote  Casco  Bay;  and  this  port  probably  provided  en- 
trance for  some  debarred  goods  into  the  province.  The 
traders  and  inhabitants  there  did  not  formally  adopt  an 
agreement  until  June  26,  1770.^     Salem  and  ]\Iarblehead. 

^  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  Colonial,  vol.  v,  no.  155. 
'  Bos.  News-Letter,  Aug.  31,  1769. 
^  Letter  of  Jan.  26,  1771 ;  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  p.  457. 
*  Letter  of  Nov.  21,  1770  to  Peter  Timothy;  Adams,  Writings  (Gush- 
ing), vol.  ii,  p.  65. 
''Bos.  Gaz.,  Oct.  30,  1760,  July  9,  1770. 


l84  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  chief  trading  towns  next  to  Boston,  proved  more  faith- 
ful. The  merchants  of  Salem  adopted  an  agreement  in  Sep- 
tember, 1/68,  similar  to  that  of  Boston  of  the  preceding 
month/  On  May  i,  1769,  the  Essex  Gazette  published  an 
itemized  account  of  the  spring  importations,  and  concluded : 
"  There  has  not  been  any  Goods  imported  here  or  expected 
that  has  been  wrote  for  since  the  Agreement,"  save,  of 
course,  certain  permitted  articles.  During  the  following 
year,  public  notices  from  time  to  time  showed  that  the 
Salem  Committee  of  Inspection  was  alert  in  detecting  for- 
bidden importations  and  in  procuring  the  storing  of  goods." 
In  September,  1770,  four  dealers  whose  importations  had 
been  placed  in  store  obtained  possession  of  them  through 
the  assistance  of  a  "  process  of  law  "  and  a  doughty  under- 
sheriff.  These  persons  were  proscribed,  as  were  also  the 
inhabitants  who  dealt  at  their  stores.  The  town  meeting 
solemnly  resolved  that  an  account  of  the  dealers'  defiant 
conduct  should  be  publicly  read  at  every  annual  meeting  for 
the  next  seven  years. ^ 

The  Marblehead  merchants  exhibited  the  first  symptom.s 
of  joining  with  Boston  and  Salem  on  October  19,  1769, 
when  a  chest  of  tea,  purchased  of  a  Boston  importer,  was 
carted  ceremoniously  about  the  streets  and  then  returned 
to  its  starting-point  in  Boston.*  A  week  later  the  mer- 
chants of  Marblehead  signed  an  agreement  to  dispense  with 

^  Essex  Gaz.,  Sept.  6,  1768;  also  Bos.  Gas.,  Sept.  12. 

^  Bos.  Post-Boy,  July  4,  1769;  Esse.v  Gas.,  Aug.  15,  1769;  Bos.  Gas., 
Aug.  27,  1770.  Upon  news  of  the  partial  repeal  of  the  Townshend 
duties,  the  town  meeting  on  May  i,  1770  voted  an  agreement  against 
the  drinking  of  tea;  and  within  a  week  three  hundred  sixty  persons, 
almost  all  heads  of  families,  attached  their  signatures.  Essc.r  Gas., 
May  8,  1770. 

'  Ibid.,  Oct.  2,  9,  16,  23,  1770. 

*  Bos.  Gas.,  Oct.  23,  1769. 


NON-IMPORTA  TION  t  Q  - 

British  importations,  save  certain  articles,  until  the  repeal 
of  the  Townshend  duties/  Under  this  agreement,  im- 
portations were  duly  stored  with  the  committee  by  all  the 
merchants,  except  four  whose  names  were  published.^  A 
signed  statement  of  the  committee  of  inspection,  in  the 
Essex  Gazette,  May  22,  1 770,  affirmed  that  a  strict  scrutiny 
of  all  importations  since  the  adoption  of  the  agreement  had 
revealed  only  a  few  forbidden  articles  and  these  had  been 
sent  to  Boston  for  re-shipment  to  London.  As  was  to  be 
expected,  whispers  began  to  reach  Boston  that  Salem, 
Marblehead,  Newbury  and  Haverhill  had  deviated  from  non- 
importation; and  finally,  on  July  31,  1770,  the  merchants 
and  inhabitants  of  Boston  appointed  a  committee  to  visit 
the  towns  and  make  report  of  their  observations.  A  week 
later  the  committee  was  able  to  report  that  the  towns  in 
question  had  honorably  carried  out  their  agreements  and 
the  assembled  body  passed  resolutions  congratulating  them 
on  their  steadfastness.^ 

^^  In  addition  to  the  places  already  mentioned,  a  host  of 
inland  towns  joined,  in  1770,  in  resolutions  to  boycott  the 
Boston  importers  and  to  consume  no  more  tea.  Although 
Charlestown  took  this  step  in  February,  the  vast  majority 
adopted  their  measures  coincident  with  the  Boston  Massacre 

^  Mass.  Gaz.  &■  News  Letter,  Nov.  2,  1769. 

-  The  proscribed  merchants  entered  a  vigorous  defense  and  promised 
future  adherence  to  the  agreement;  but  they  won  no  lenience.  Essex 
Gac,  Dec.  19,  26,  1769;  Jan.  16,  1770;  Mass.  Gac.  &  News-Letter,  Dec. 
28,  1769.  On  learning  of  the  partial  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties, 
the  town  meeting  voted  on  May  10,  1770  a  continuation  of  the  agree- 
ment and  ordered  that,  whereas  719  heads  of  families  had  signed  an 
agreement  to  use  no  tea,  the  ten  delinquents  should  be  stigmatized  in 
the  newspapers.  It  was  also  voted  that  the  town  should  pay  the  freight 
in  sending  back  such  goods  as  had  arrived  in  consequence  of  the 
partial  repeal.    Essex  Gaz.,  I^.Iay  15,  1770. 

^  Mass.  Spy,  Aug.  14,  1770;  also  .V.  Y.  Jonrn.,  Aug.  23. 


1 86  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

and  the  ensuing  period  of  excitemen^t;^  On  the  very  day  of 
that  affair,  nine  towns  entered  such  resolutions/  Before 
the  first  of  April,  seventeen  more  towns  followed  their  ex- 
ample; ^  and  in  May,  at  least  four  other  towns  joined  in  the 
resolutions.^ 

fThe  enforcement  of  non-importation  at  New  York  did 
not  present  any  ver}^  unusual  features?!  The  agreement 
went  into  operation  after  November  i,  1768;  and  in  the 
following  March,  before  the  spring  shipments  began  to 
arrive,  a  committee  of  inspection  was  appointed  by  the 
merchants  who  were  subscribers  to  the  agreement,  with 
Isaac  Low  at  its  head.*  Low  represented  the  best  type  of 
merchant-reformer,  and  was  long  to  head  merchants'  com- 
mittees in  their  efforts  to  obtain  trade  concessions  from 
Parliament.  He  possessed  wide  commercial  connections 
and  was  financially  interested  in  a  slitting  mill.^  The  doc- 
trinaire phrase  of  "  no  taxation  without  representation  " 
meant  to  him  merely  a  cover  for  carrying~oirHlsni£S5'with 
a  modicum  of  parliamentary  restraint.  In  the  stormy  days 
of  1 774- 1 775,  he  retained  the  confidence  of  both  radicals 
and  conservatives,  but  his  own  influence  was  thrown  against 
the  dismemberment  of  the  empire;  when  war  came,  his 
choice  lay  with  the  home  country. 

'  Acton,  Dedham,  Holliston.  Littleton,  Maiden,  Aledway.  Waltham, 
Watertown,  Westiord.  Most  of  the  resolutions  of  this  period  may  be 
found  in  the  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Mch.  19  to  July  9,  1770. 

^  Abington,  Attleborough,  Billerica,  Brookfield,  Cambridge,  Gloucester, 
Groton,  Hingham.,  Lancaster,  Medford,  Milton,  Pembroke,  Plymouth, 
Roxburj%   Salisbury,   Sandwich,   Sudbury. 

'  Andover,  Boxford,  Danvers,  Taunton. 

*  A''.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  ]Mch.  20,  1769.  For  names  of  the  committeemen, 
vide  Becker,  N.  Y.  Parties,  1760-1776,  p.  75,  n.  106. 

^  P.  Curtenius  to  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence,  Aug.  26,  1774. 
Bos.  Coin.  Cor.  Papers  (N.  Y.  Pub.  Libr.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  381-385. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


187 


The  operations  of  the  committee  of  inspection  differed 
from  those  of  its  counterpart  in  Boston  chiefly  in  requir- 
ing merchandise,  imported  contrary  to  the  agreement,  to 
be  kept  in  a  pubHc  store  under  the  lock  and  key  of  the  com- 
mittee. This  arrangement  placed  a  stopper  on  a  possible 
leakage  of  stored  goods,  and  created  public  confidence  in  the 
good  faith  of  the  non-importing  merchants.  In  the  New 
York  Journal,  May  11,  1769,  the  committee  stated  officially 
that  the  several  vessels  which  had  lately  arrived  had  brought 
some  packages  upon  consignment,  which  were  under  ban  of 
the  agreement  and  which  had  been  placed  in  the  public 
store,  in  all  but  one  or  two  instances.^  The  Nezu  York 
Gazette  and  Weekly  Mercury  of  May  8  averred  that  the 
dutied  goods  imported  in  the  preceding  fall  amounted  to 
some  hundreds  of  pounds  sterling  but  that  the  amount  did 
"  not  exceed  40s.  this  Spring."  .  Later  in  the  year,  ship 
masters  whose  cargoes  contained  prohibited  articles  found 
it  necessary  to  publish  sworn  statements,  explaining  and  ex- 
cising their  inadvertence.^ 

VThe  most  difficult  problem  that  the  committee  of  in- 
spection dealt  with  was  to  prevent  clandestine  importations 
from  neighboring  provinces^  Pennsylvania  in  particular. 
Since  the  Philadelphia  agreement  went  into  effect  four 
months  after  New  York,  there  was  a  constant  temptation 
to  introduce  into  New  York  goods  that  had  been  imported 
at  Philadelphia  later  than  was  perm.itted  by  the  local  agree- 
ment, j^uch  an  instance  caused  "  uneasiness  "  among  the 
inhai5Tta.nts   in   April,    1769,   and   the   offending   merchant 

'  The  public  Avere  asked  to  boycott  these  delinquents  and  all  those 
who  traded  with  them.  For  the  enforcement  of  the  agreement  upon 
the  arrival  of  the  Britannia  from  L'^ndon,  April  29,  1769  (probably 
the  first  case  of  enforcing  non-importation),  vide  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc, 
May  I,  1769;  Bos.  Chron.,  May  15. 

"  Vide  two  instances  in  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Nov.  20,  1769. 


1 88  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

"  voluntarily  "  returned  the  goods  to  Philadelphia/  Two 
months  later,  the  committee  commended  to  the  public  the 
action  of  Peter  Clopper,  for  returning  to  Philadelphia,  of 
his  own  accord,  some  hneries  which  he  had  purchased  there 
for  his  famil}'.-  Alexander  Robertson,  another  merchant, 
was  not  so  tractable.  Some  New  Jersey  people  examined 
his  casks  of  goods  in  transit  from  Philadelphia  and  re- 
ported the  nature  of  his  shipment  to  the  committee  of  in- 
spection. With  an  air  of  injured  surprise,  he  avowed  to 
the  committee  his  innocence  of  evil  intent,  implored  the 
pardon  of  the  public  in  a  published  statement,  and  agreed 
to  send  back  the  goods.  It  quickly  developed  that  he  did 
conscientiously  return  the  casks,  but  their  contents  remained 
in  the  cellar  of  the  ferry-house  for  a  later  introduction  into 
New  York.  This  duplicity  brought  upon  him  all  the  rigors 
o£j.  boycott.' 

^vThe  shopkeepers  and  other  inhabitants*  had  adopted  an 
agreement  which  confirmed  and  buttressed  the  merchants' 
combination.  This  element  of  the  population  soon"  began 
to  grow  impatient  with  the  deliberate  measures  of  the  mer- 
chants, and  they  recalled  with  relish  the  swift  effective  meth- 
ods of  Stamp  Act  days.  1/  When,  therefore,  the  silversmith, 
Simeon  Cooley,  was  proscribed  by  the  committee  on  July 
20,  1769,  for  insolent  defiance  of  non-importation,  it  did  not 
seem  sufficient  to  the  inhabitants  in  general  that  his  behavior 
should  be  dismissed  with  a  declaration  of  bc3-cott.  A  mass 
meeting  was  held  the  following  day  in  the  Fields  to  treat 
with  him ;  and  when  he  refused  to  appear  for  fear  of  per- 
sonal violence,  the  crowd  moved  en  masse  upon  his  house. 

^  A''.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Apr.  17,  1769. 

^  A^  Y.  Journ.,  June  29,  1769. 

^N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  June  19,  1769;  X.  Y.  Journ.,  June  29,  July  6; 
Bos.  News-Letter,  June  29.  For  Willett's  offense  of  a  similar  char- 
acter, vide  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  July  17. 


NON-IMPORTA  TION 


189 


Fleeing  to  the  fort,  he  prevailed  upon  Major  Pitcairn  to  send 
a  file  of  soldiers  to  guard  the  house ;  but  these  were  suddenly 
withdrawn,  apparently  upon  sober  second  thought  of  the 
military.  Cooley  agreed  to  meet  the  crowd  the  next  after- 
noon; and  there  he  "  publickly  acknowledged  his  Crimes; 
.  ,  .  engaged  to  store  an  Equivalent  to  the  Goods  he  had 
sold,  together  with  all  those  he  had  in  Possession,"  and  to 
conduct  himself  faultlessly  in  the  future.  The  boycott  re- 
mained; and  two  months  later  he  disposed  of  his  business 
and  departed  in  disgust  for  Jamaica  with  a  pocket-book 
much  the  lighter  for  his  pertinacity.^  On  September  19, 
an  assemblage  of  inhabitants  again  met  to  deal  with  a 
jeweller  who  had  been  proscribed  by  the  merchants.  A 
scaffold  was  erected  near  Liberty  Pole ;  the  culprit,  Thomas 
Richardson  by  name,  was  then  called  before  them;  and, 
mounted  on  the  rostrum,  he  discovered  a  readiness  to  ask 
the  forgiveness  of  the  public  and  to  agree  to  store  his  goods.^ 
yWith  each  application  of  mob  law  the  merchants  as  a  class  i 
became  more  fearful.  The  employment  of  violence  was 
not  a  part  of  their  program  for  obtaining  trade  reforms; 
they  had  every  reason  to  desire  to  hold  the  populace  in  leash.  / 
As  events  progressed,  the  riftj^tween  the  merchants  and 
the  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  wideneclL^  x\s  Golden  remarked,  at 
this  time,  of  attempts  to  instigate  violence,  "  Peoplein  gen- 
eral, especially  they  of  property,  are  aware  of  the  dangerous 
Consequences- Dl_sj!J£h_riotous  and"mol)ish  proceedings. ' '  ^ 
On  Tuesday,  June  26,  1770,  a  trahvSient  named  Hills  was  de- 
tected in  the  act  of  peddling  wares  debarred  by  the  agree- 

*  A',  y.  Jov.rn.,  July  20,  1769;  N.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  July  24,  Sept.  18. 
Cooley's  version,  first  published  in  the  London  Public  Ledger,  may 
be  found  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  23. 

*  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Sept.  21,  1769. 

*  Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  200. 


190 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


ment,  and  on  the  demand  of  the  committee  of  inspection  he 
surrendered  his  goods,  worth  almost  £200,  to  be  stored. 
About  one  o'clock  that  night  a  number  of  persons  in  dis- 
guise took  forcible  possession  of  the  goods  and  committed 
the  whole  to  the  flames.  Without  further  warning,  Hills 
fled  the  town.  The  committee  of  inspection  made  this  the 
occasion  for  a  solemn  preachment  and  warning.  In  a 
signed  statement,  the  midnight  visitation  was  stigmatized 
as  "  a  high  Insult  "  offered  to  the  committee  and  to  the  city 
by  "  some  lawless  Ruffians,"  and  every  good  citizen  was 
urged  to  do  all  in  his  power  "  to  bring  the  Authors,  Aiders 
and  Abettors  of  so  unwarrantable  an  Act  to  speedy  Justice."  ^ 
Naturally  the  offenders  continued  undiscovered;  but  these 
new  instances  of  mob  assertion  had  a  controlling  influence 
Wiethe  course  of  the  merchants  in  the  subsequent  years. 
j  '^There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  non-importation  was 
•''  exceedingly  well  enforced  in  New  YorTc^  The  committee 
had  no  difficulty  to  contend  vv^ith,  except  the  greed  of  those 
merclmits  who  sought  to  import  goods  at  the  prevailing  high 
prices.  ^It  was  claimed  in  December,  1769,  that  every  bit  of 
goods  Drought  in  contrary  to  the  agreement  had  been  placed 
in  the  public  store."  Although  this  high  standard  of  per- 
fection was  not  reached^ie  figures  show  that  the  importa- 
tions from  Great  Britain  in  1769  had  fallen  to  £75,930,  as 
compared  with  £490,673  in  the  preceding  year,  a  record 
which  wa^  not  equalled  or  even  approached  in  any  other 
province.  ^^ 

^  A''.  Y.  Journ.,  June  28,  July  5,  1770. 

^Letter  from  New  York;  Mass.  Gaz.  &  News-Letter,  Dec.  21,  1769. 

^  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  486,  494-495.  The  British 
importations  into  New  York  in  1770  amouxited  to  £475,991.  Ihid.,  p. 
508.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  know  what  proportion  of  the 
goods  imported  during  these  years  was  permissible  under  the  agree- 
ment.    It  will  be  remembered  that  the  agreement  was  also   directed 


NON-IMPORTATION  igi 

[n  Philadelphia  the  opposition  to  non-importation,  once 
that  measure  had  been  adopted,  was  even  milder  in  char- 
acter jf'  The  body  of  merchants  were  its  hearty  supporters, 
although  there  was  a  pronounced  feeling  on  the  part  of  the 
importers  of  British  drygoods  that  the  provisions  of  the  local 
agreement  discriminated  unjustly  against  them.  Their  com- 
plaint was  that  their  commerce  was  cut  off,  while  the  mer- 
chants who  traded  with  the  West  Indies  and  the  Wine 
Islands  continued  their  business  as  before  the  agreement; 
and  they  pointed  out  that  these  prospering  traders  were 
paying  duties  upon  importations  of  molasses  and  wines  and 
thus  counteracting  the  principle  of  home  rule  in  taxation, 
for  which  the  Americans  professed  to  be  fighting.  More- 
over, the  merchants  of  Maryland  and  Albany,  acting  under 
more  liberal  agreements,  were  importing  goods  for  the  In- 
dian trade,  a  privilege  that  was  denied  to  the  Philadelphia 
merchants.^  Their  dissatisfaction  with  the  agreement  took 
the  form  of  efforts  to  modify  it  or  repeal  it  rather  than 
clandestine  attempts  to  violate  it.y> 

The  Society  of  Friends,  in  which  some  of  the  great  mer- 
chants were  very  influential,  found  an  early  occasion  to  take 
an  official  stand  against  it.  At  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
more  than  fifty  of  them,  including  such  prominent  Quakers 
as  Israel  and  James  Pemberton,  had  signed  the  agreement; 
and  indeed  the  measure  appeared  to  be  a  Quaker  method  of 
resistance.  But  the  present  agreement  was  more  rigorous 
in  its  terms ;  and  when  the  Channing  Polly  episode  disclosed 
that  the  populace,  most  of  whom  ''  were  incapable  of  judg- 
ing prudently  on  a  matter  of  so  great  importance,"  might 

against  smuggled  importations  from  Hamburg  and  Holland.  There 
were  no  published  accounts  of  efforts  to  enforce  these  latter  restric- 
tions. "  A.  B."  in  the  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Nov.  23,  1769,  made  an  incidental 
reference  to  the  storing  of  large  consignments  from  foreign  merchants. 
^  Pa.  Gac,  Jan.  25,  1770;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  42. 


IQ2  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

be  called  in  to  exert  force  in  executing  the  agreement,  the 
monthly  meeting  of  Philadelphia  advised  Friends  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  non-importation  measures/  Neverthe- 
less, many  prominent  Quakers  were  concerned  in  the  agree- 
ment, including  John  Reynell  who  headed  the  committee 
of  inspection. 

'<T^he  Philadelphia  merchants  established  an  excellent  rec- 
ord of  enforcemeiiW';On  Monday,  July  17,  1769,  occurred 
the  first  effort  to  violate  the  agreement,  when  the  Charming 
Polly  with  a  cargo  of  malt  arrived  in  port.  Amos  Strettell. 
the  consignee,  was  able  to  show  that  he  had  not  ordered 
the  malt;  and  at  a  public  meeting  the  following  day  the 
brewers  of  the  city  presented  an  agreement  that  they  would 
have  none  of  it.  The  meeting  voted  unanimously  that  any 
person  who  bought  any  of  the  malt  or  helped  to  unload  it 
should  be  deemed  an  "  Enemy  to  his  Country."  A  week 
later,  the  captain  of  the  brig,  not  perhaps  lacking  a  sense  of 
humor,  sailed  with  his  malt  to  Cork.-  On  July  29,  the  brig 
Speedwell  arrived  with  some  debarred  goods,  which  had  been 
ordered  prior  to  the  agreement;  these  were  placed  in  a 
public  store. ^ 

.  The  expeditious  return  of  imports  commended  itself  as 
a  better  device  than  the  storing  of  them  on  either  the  New 
York  or  the  Boston  plan.  \,The  Philadelphia  Committee 
believed  it  would  defeat  the  schem.e  of  "  some  monied  peo- 
ple "  in  England  "  to  buy  up  quantities  of  manufactures  on 
easy  terms  and  lodge  them  in  the  principal  towns  in  America 
to  be  readvior  the  first  opening  of  the  markets  after  the 
repeal."  *  QTherefore,  at  a  meeting  of  August  2,  the  mer- 

'  Sharpless,  I.,  The  Quakers  in  the  Revolution  (Philadelphia,  1899), 
pp.  77-80;  Lincoln,  Rcvoliitio}wry  Movement  in  Pa.,  p.  151. 

*  Pa.  Journ.,  July  20,  1769;  also  A'^.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  July  24. 

*  Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  3,  1769. 

*  Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  29-31. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION  I  qo 

chants  decided  that  all  goods,  which  arrived  from  England 
on  consignment  or  which  had  been  ordered  after  February 
6,  should  not  be  stored  as  other  goods  hv^  should  be  sent 
back/  This  plan  was  followed  thereafter. /^A  notable  case 
of  enforcement  occurred  when  the  Frienci's  Good  Will  ar- 
rived on  September  30  with  a  great  quantity  of  merchandise 
shipped  by  British  merchants  on  speculation.  These  goods 
were  said  to  have  been  offered  to  eighty-four  merchants  in 
vain;  and  the  brig  returned  with  her  cargo  intact."  In 
December,  the  signers  of  the  agreement  authorized  the  com- 
mittee to  auction  off  such  stored  goods  as  were  likely  to 
perish  from  prolonged  storing,  the  profits  of  such  sale  to 
be  devoted  to  some  public  use.^ 

The  committee  of  inspection  continued  its  activities  far 
into  the  year  1770  and  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  proscribe 
offenders  by  name  until  June  of  that  year.* Statistics  show 
that  British  imports  had  been  reduced  in  value  from  £441,- 
829  in  1768  to  £204,978  in  the  year  1769,  and  to  £134,881 
in  1 770.^  Next  to  New  York,  this  was  the  best  record  of 
any  province  for  the  year  1769,  and  the  best  record  on  the 
continent  for  the  year  i770.>Trhe  enforcement  of  non-^ 
importation  was  free  from  all  exhibitions  of  mob  violence,  ^ 

^  Pa.  Gas.,  Aug.  3,  1769;  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  3. 

"^  Pa.  Journ.,  Oct.  5,  1769;  5.  C.  Gas.,  Nov.  16.  The  committee  of 
inspection  also  had  to  be  watchful  to  detect  fraudulent  practices  on 
the  part  of  British  merchants.  In  one  instance,  Stephen  Collins 
solemnly  informed  the  London  merchant,  Samuel  Elam,  "  thy  Brother 
Emanuel  was  found  to  have  antedated  his  Invoices  and  Letters  in 
sutch  a  manner  as  to  Lead  people  here  [toj  talke  very  freely  of  them." 
A  few  months  later,  he  returned  a  bale  of  cloth  sent  by  Samuel  Elam 
himself  contrary  to  orders,  with  the  admonition:  "I  am  realy  sorrj- 
for  thy  sake  it  has  happened,  as  many  people  seem  mutch  Disaffected." 
CoUins,  Letter  Book  1760-1773,  Sept.  18,  Dec.  11,  1769. 

'  Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  64-67. 

*  E.  g.,  vide  Pa.  Journ.,  July  5,  12,  28,  1770. 

*  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Cotn.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  485,  494-495,  508. 


194  T^HE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

largely  because  goods  violative  of  th&agreement  were  im- 
mediately re-shipped  to  Great  BritainA) 

\'Of  the  minor  provinces  in  the  commercial  group,  New 
Hampshire  took  a  belated  stand  on  the  side  of  non-importa- 
tion when  the  emotions  of  the  people  were  deeply  stirred 
by  the  news  of  the  Boston  MassacreT^^  As  late  as  February, 
1770,  Governor  Wentworth  had  written  that  some  Scotch 
merchants  were  plying  a  trade  in  imported  wares  undis- 
turbed/ After  the  fateful  fifth  of  March,  all  indifference 
vanished  among  the  people.  "  The  cry  of  Blood,  reechoed 
from  one  to  the  other,  seems  to  infuriate  them,"  wrote  the 
governor.  "  Upon  this  event  the  Assembly  were  prevailed 
upon  to  forward  their  petition,  which  would  otherwise  have 
slept  forever;  the  people  will  not  be  persuaded  but  that  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Customs  and  the  Revenue  Acts  are 
exerted  to  destroy  the  lives  and  absorb  the  property  of  the 
people."  ^  The  first  action  was  taken  by  town  meetings  at 
New  Ipswich  and  Exeter,  two  towns  located  not  far  from 
the  Massachusetts  line.  New  Ipswich  was  a  sparsely  settled 
township  with  trading  relations  solely  with  Boston ;  and  on 
March  19,  they  resolved  to  purchase  no  articles  forbidden 
by  the  Boston  agreement  and  to  boycott  all  importers.^ 
The  inhabitants  of  Exeter,  notwithstanding  the  reputation 
they  enjoyed  of  living  up  to  "  the  tip  top  of  the  Fashion." 
agreed  a  week  later  to  discourage  the  use  of  foreign  luxuries 
and  to  stop  totally  the  consumption  of  tea  until  the  duty 
should  be  removed.*  No  action  was  taken  by  Portsmouth, 
the  chief  port,  until  McMasters,  a  proscribed  importer  of 

1  Vide  supra,  p.  155. 

-  Brit.  Papers  ("  Sparks  Mssf),  vol.  i,  p.  17.  Letter  of  Apr.  12,  1770 
to  Hillsborough. 

'  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Apr.  9,  1770. 

*N.  H.  Gas.j  Apr.  13,  May  11,  1770. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


195 


Boston,  sought  to  introduce  his  wares  there.  The  town 
meeting,  on  April  11,  resolved  to  have  no  dealings  with 
McMasters  or  any  other  importer,  and  to  boycott  vendue 
masters  and  coasting  vessels  that  were  in  any  way  connected 
with  them.  They  even  threatened  to  cancel  the  licenses  of 
tavern-keepers  who  permitted  such  goods  to  be  exposed 
for  sale  in  their  houses.^  The  movement  in  New  Hamp- 
shire partook  too  much  of  the  nature  of  an  emotional  revival 
to  be  lasting  in  its  effects ;  and,  as  we  shall  see,  the  merchants 
at  Portsmouth  resumed  importation  as  soon  as  the  excite- 
ment subsided.^ 

Of  the  remaining  northern  provinces,  Rhode  Island  was 
the  only  province  whose  conduct  resembled,  in  any  respect, 
that  of  New  Hampshire^Dragged  into  the  non-importa- 
tion league  by  threats  of  boycott  by  the  great  trading-towns^, 
the  merchants  at  Newport  regarded  their  tardy  agreement 
with  keenest  disrelish.  Hutchinson  voiced  the  common 
opinion  of  other  provinces  when  he  said :  "  Rhode  Island 
professed  to  join  but  privately  imported  to  their  great 
gain."  ^  When  John  Maudsley,  a  member  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty,  returned  from  London  with  goods  forbidden  by 
the  agreement,  which  had  been  adopted  during  his  absence, 
he  "  cheerfully  submitted  "  the  goods  to  be  stored,  accord- 
ing to  the  account  in  the  Nezvport  Mercury,  April  9,  1 770. 
But  if  "Americanus,"  of  Swanzey,  is  to  be  believed  in  the 
Boston  Gazette,  May  7,  the  goods  in  question  were  placed 
in  Maudsley's  store  on  the  wharf,  and,  after  dark,  were 
carted  to  his  house,  immediately  opened  and  publicly  sold 
to  almost  every  shop  in  Newport,  unnoticed  by  the  Mer- 
chants' Committee.  This  tale  bears  the  color  of  truth. 
<CCertain  it  is  that  the  Merchants'  Committee  at  Newport 

^  A'.  H.  Gas.,  Apr.  13,  1770;  also  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Apr.  16. 
^Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  261  n. 


196 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


never  displayed  any  noticeable  activity  in  detecting  tabooed 
inmortations. 

^^1  evidence  would  indicate  that  New  Jersey,  the  Dela- 
waretTounties  and  Connecticut  were  true  to^heir  profes- 
sions of  non-importation  and  non-consumption!^In  the  case 
of  Connecticut,  "A  Freeman  of  Connecticut '  wrote  in  July, 
1770,  with  every  assurance  of  truth,  that  the  various  agree- 
ments of  the  towns  had  been  kept  "  save  in  three  or  four 
trivial  instances,  inadvertently  and  inconsiderately  done; 
and  in  every  instance,  one  excepted,  public  satisfaction  has 
been  given  and  the  goods  stored."  ^  The  exception  was  a 
small  importation  of  tea  from  Boston. 

*  Conn.  Courant,  July  30,  1770.  A  case,  which  gained  local  notoriety, 
was  the  importation  of  some  coarse  woolens  by  Mr.  Verstille,  of  Weath- 
ersfield,  a  man  who  had  been  in  England  when  the  non-importation 
agreement  was  adopted.  As  the  merits  of  the  case  were  not  at  all 
clear,  some  merchants  cut  the  knot  by  buying  the  goods  from  Verstille 
and  placing  them  in  store  at  their  expense.    Ibid.,  Mch.  5. 


CHAPTER  V 

Enforcement  and  Bbeakdown  of  Non-Importation 
(Continued) 

vli<s  the  plantation  provinces,  non-importation  and  the  prob- 
lems of  its  enforcement  were  much  less  a  part  of  the  fabric 
of  everyday  life  than  in  the  commercial  provinces.)  The 
agreements  and  associations  had  been  promoted  by  the  plant- 
ing class  in  opposition  to  the  small,  active  mercantile  class; 
and  in  the  general  absence  of  trading  centres,  it  was  difficult 
for  the  planting  element  to  implant  the  fear  of  discipline 
in  the  hearts  of  the  merchants.  The  geographical  distribu- 
tion of  southern  society  deprived  the  planters  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  exerting  their  influence  compactly,  except  at  the 
periodical  meetings  of  the  legislative  assemblies.  Further- 
more, since  the  economic  discontent  in  the  South  was  not 
directly  traceable  to  the  Townshend  duties  and  restrictions, 
a  literal  obedience  to  the  agreements  did  not  always  seem 
imperative  to  the  planters  themselves.^   <rhe  result  was  that 

*  The  conduct  of  George  Washington  probably  typified  the  attitude 
of  many  of  the  planters  toward  the  non-importation  association.  On 
July  25,  1769,  he  ordered  a  bill  of  goods  from  a  London  house,  with 
instructions  that:  "If  there  are  any  articles  contained  in  either  of 
the  invoices  (paper  only  excepted)  which  are  taxed  by  act  of  Parha- 
ment  ...  it  is  my  express  desire  .  .  .  that  they  may  not  be  sent." 
Washington  ignored  the  fact  that  a  long  list  of  household  luxuries  and 
personal  fineries  were  equally  under  the  ban  with  the  dutied  articles. 
Vide  supra,  p.  137  n.  A  little  more  than  a  year  later,  however,  he  placed 
orders  in  London  for  goods,  which  seemed  to  correspond  entirely 
with  the  provisions  of  the  Virginia  association.  Washington,  IVritings 
(Ford),  vol.  ii.  pp.  270  n.,  284  n. 

197 


igS  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

^imports  from  England  to  the  plantation  provinces  actually- 
increased  somewhat  in  the  years  1769  and  i77o/\vhereas,  in 
the  commercial  provinces,  they  declined  two-thirds  in  the 
year  1769  as  compared  with  the  year  1768,  and  fell  below 
the  level  of  1768  even  in  the  year  1770  when  the  agreements 
collapsed.  >  Virginia  appears  to  have  been  the  worst  of- 
fender quantitatively.  To  Maryland  and  South  Carolina 
falls  ^e  distinction  of  having  made  the  most  honorable 
record-lV 

Soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  Virginia  Association  of 
May  18,  1769,  it  became  evident  that  the  factors  dominated 
the  situation  in  the  province  and  that,  unless  their  aid  was 
enlisted,  the  association  could  be  hardly  more  than  a  glitter- 
ing futility.^  A  new  and  even  more  liberal  plan  was  there- 
fore drafted;  and  on  June  22,  1770,  it  was  jointly  adopted 
b}'  the  members  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  and  the  merchant 
body  of  Williamsburg.  The  new  association  was  a  lengthy 
document  which  covered  the  essential  points  of  the  earlier 
agreement.  Several  changes  were  made  in  the  list  of  articles 
enumerated  for  non-importation.  A  regulation  was  added 
to  boycott  impK)rters  who  defied  the  association  or  w^ho 
bought  goods  imported  into  Virginia  because  rejected  in 
other  provinces;  and  a  committee  of  inspection  was  au- 
thorized for  each  county  with  instructions  to  publish  the 
names  of  all  offenders.  The  association  was  signed  by  the 
moderator,  Peyton  Randolph,  by  Andrew  Sprowle,  chairman 
of  the  Williamsburg  traders,  and  by  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
six  others.  Copies  of  the  association  were  sent  to  the  coun- 
ties for  signing."     Only  one  or  two  attempts  to  enforce  the 

'Bland,  Papers  (Campbell,  C,  ed.),  vol.  i,  pp.  28-30;  Washington, 
Writings  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  pp.  280-283. 

"^  Pa.  Gaz.,  July  12,  1770;  also  A''.  Y.  Journ.,  July  19.  A  copy,  signed 
by  sixty-two  inhabitants  of  Fairfax  Count}%  is  in  the  Library  of 
Congress. 


NON-IMPORTATION  lOO 

association  were  noted  in  the  newspapers.  In  one  instance, 
Captain  Spier  of  the  Sharpe,  whose  conduct  at  Philadelphia 
had  caused  his  proscription,  arrived  at  Norfolk  to  ply  his 
trade.  Although  the  signers  of  the  association  took  occa- 
sion to  express  their  belief  that  the  landing  or  storing  of  his 
goods  would  be  an  offense  against  the  association,  neverthe- 
less the  merchants,  William  and  John  Brown,  received  goods 
from  him  and  defied  the  local  committee.  In  Rind's  Vir- 
ginia Gazette  of  August  2,  1770,  the  committee  published  the 
facts  of  the  affair,  with  the  statement :  "  What  is  further 
necessary  to  be  done  ...  is  submitted  to  the  Consideration 
of  the  Virginia  Associators." 

SConsiderably  more  pains  were  taken  to  enforce  the  as- 
sociation in  Maryland  and  with  greater  success.  The  non- 
importation combination  in  that  province  gained  much 
strength  from  the  proximity  of  the  ^Maryland  ports  to 
Philadelphia  and  from  the  fact  that  non-importation  had  re- 
ceived some  local  mercantile  support  from  the  beginning.  \ 
The  number  of  native  merchants  w^as  greater  than  in  Vir- 
ginia; and  indeed  Baltimore  was  showing  indications  of 
becoming  a  commercial  rival  of  Philadelphia./'  The  execu- 
tion of  the  Maryland  pact  was  jealously  scrutinized  by  the 
merchants  at  Philadelphia,  and  for  a  time  the  good  faith 
of  the  Baltimore  merchants  was  suspected.  This  feeling 
took  definite  shape  in  November,  1769,  when  the  Baltimore 
Committee  of  Merchants  permitted  two  merchants  to  bring 
in  goods,  valued  at  £2600,  that  violated  the  local  agreement 
of  March  30.  In  the  one  case,  the  importer  had  satisfied  a 
meeting  of  associators  that  he  had  received  a  special  exemp- 
tion covering  the  fall  shipments ;  and,  in  the  other,  it  had 
been  shown  that  the  goods  were  permitted  by  the  general 
]Maryland  association  which  postdated  the  local  agreement. 

'  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement  in  Pa.,  pp.  59-65. 


200  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  17G3-1776 

These  occurrences  brought  a  sharp  letter  from  the  Philadel- 
phia Committee  of  Merchants,  with  an  intimation  that  the 
Marylanders  were  plotting  to  deflect  trade  from  Phila- 
delphia and  a  warning  that  their  conduct  would  surely  bring 
on  them  a  rigorous  boycott.  When  they  got  further  light, 
however,  the  Philadelphia  Committee  freely  admitted  their 
error  and  expressed  pleasure  at  the  upright  conduct  of  Balti- 
more.^ In  view  of  no  evidence  to  the  contrary,  the  mer- 
chants of  Baltimore  seem  to  have  merited  this  good  opinion. 
Thus,  in  May,  1770,  a  meeting  of  merchants  refused  to 
permit  a  shipment,  valued  at  £1292,  to  be  landed.' 

In  all  Maryland,  the  best  known  case  of  enforcement  was 
that  of  the  brigantine  Good  Intent  at  Annapolis  in  Febru- 
ary, 1770.^  Courts  of  law  have  seldom  sat  on  cases  involv- 
ing nicer  points  of  interpretation;  and  few  better  examples 
could  be  found  of  the  application  of  a  rule  of  conduct 
against  the  wish  and  interest  of  individuals.  The  Good 
Intent  arrived  from  London  heavily  laden  with  European 
goods  for  a  number  of  mercantile  houses  of  Annapolis. 
James  Dick  and  Anthony  Stewart,  the  largest  importers  and 
respected  merchants  of  the  town,  admitted  that  their  own 
shipment  amounted  to  £1377,  of  which  only  £715  worth  con- 
sisted of  articles  permitted  by  the  agreement.  Believing 
that  the  character  of  the  importations  was  being  widely 
misunderstood,  Dick  &  Stewart  requested  a  joint  meeting 

^  Md.  Gaz.,  Dec.  28,  1769;  Papers  of  Phila.  Merchants,  pp.  45-47,  62-63, 

'  Pc.  Gas.,  June  7,  1770;  also  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  June!  7. 

'  The  Proceedings  of  the  Committee  Appointed  to  examine  .  .  . 
Brigantine  Good  Intent  .  .  .  (Annapolis,  1770),  reprinted  in  Md.  Hist. 
Mag.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  141-157,  240-256,  342-363;  statement  of  minority  of 
this  committee  in  Md.  Gas.,  Apr.  19,  1770.  An  abstract  of  the  pam- 
phlet was  published  in  ibid.,  Feb.  14,  and  copied  into  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Mch. 
8.  Vide  also  Governor  Eden's  correspondence  with  reference  to  this 
affair  in  4  M.  H.  S.  ColU.,  vol.  x,  pp.  621-626. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION  201 

of  the  committees  of  the  counties  of  Baltimore,  Prince 
George  and  Anne  Arundel  to  render  judgment  in  the  matter, 
and  agreed  that  no  goods  should  be  removed  from  the 
vessel  for  twelve  days  after  its  arrival.  Before  this  joint 
committee  a  vast  mass  of  evidence  was  laid  by  the  various 
importers,  consisting  of  correspondence,  manifests,  invoices, 
shop-notes,  bills  of  lading  and  other  papers.  After  careful 
consideration,  "Abundant  and  satisfactory  Proofs  "  ^  made 
it  clear  that  the  importers  had  ordered  their  goods  before 
any  association  had  been  formed  in  Maryland ;  but  the  com- 
mittee held  that,  long  since,  the  orders  had  properly  become 
"  dead,"  because  of  the  protracted  delay  of  the  London 
shipper  in  sending  the  goods  after  hearing  of  the  Maryland 
Association,  and  because  of  countermanding  orders  in  other 
cases.  The  shipper's  belated  performance  of  his  orders  was 
attributed  to  his  "  ungenerous  Principle  ...  in  trumping 
up  old  Orders  to  colour  a  premeditated  Design  to  subvert 
the  Association."  Therefore,  the  committee  resolved  that 
merchandise  debarred  by  the  association  should  not  be 
landed,  and  that,  as  the  allowable  articles  were  packed  in 
with  them,  no  goods  at  all  should  be  landed.  The  im- 
porters made  several  pointed  protests,  emphasizing  that  they 
had  not  violated  the  letter  of  the  association  and  that  many 
practical  difficulties  lay  in  the  way  of  returning  the  goods. 
Nevertheless,  they  were  forced  to  yield;  and  the  Good 
Intent  with  all  goods  on  board  sailed  for  London  on  Tues- 
day, February  27.  The  principle  upon  which  the  committee 
acted  was  that,  if  the  present  cargo  were  admitted,  "  every 
Merchant  in  London,  trading  to  this  Province,  might  send 
in  any  quantities  of  Goods  he  pleased,  under  Orders  that  he 
must  in  Course  of  Business  have  refused  to  comply  with." 
Although  Baltimore  and  Annapolis  were  the  chief  trading 

^  The  committee's  own  expression. 


202  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

centres,  committees  of  inspection  were  established  through- 
out the  province;  and  a  number  of  instances  of  enforcement 
w^e  noted  in  the  newspapers/ 

<*Xhe  efforts  to  execute  the  non-importation  association  at 
Cliarleston,  South  CaroHna,  developed  a  situation  which 
contained  some  unusual  features.  Sam  Adams  has  been 
said  to  have  had  his  counterpart  in  Chris  Gadsden  of  South 
Carolina.  Likewise,  it  may  be  said  that  the  course  of  Wil- 
liam Henry  Drayton  at  this  period  reflected  the  stormy 
career  of  John  Meinf/'' Drayton  was  a  young  man  scarce 
twenty-seven,  a  gentleman  of  independent  wealth.  Fear- 
less, hotblooded,  and  of  brilliant  parts,  he  was  by  nature  a 
conservative.  His  later  conversion  to  the  radical  cause  has 
been  attributed  to  personal  ambition,  but  can  be  more  rightly 
ascribed  to  his  intense  Americanism  and  to  a  change  of 
British  policy  in  1774  that  outraged  his  sense  of  justice 
as  deeply  as  the  situation  he  faced  in  1769.^,^  Drayton  was 
the  foremost  adversary  of  non-importation  in  South  Caro- 
lina ;>and  unlike  John  Mein,  his  tendency  was  to  place  his 
opposition  on  legal  and  constitutional  grounds,  although  he 
indulged  in  furious  abuse  upon  occasion.  Whether  he 
knew  of  Mein  or  not  is  uncertain;  but  Mein  knew  of  him 
and  copied  some  of  his  most  effective  strictures  into  the 
columns  of  the  Boston  Chronicle. 

Drayton  opened  the  attack  in  an  article  in  the  South 
Carolina  Gazette,  August  3,  1769,  under  the  signature 
"  Free-man."  Centering  his  attention  on  the  clause  of  the 
association  which  proscribed  all  persons  who  failed  to  at- 
tach their  signatures  within  one  month,  he  likened  it  to  "  the 
Popish  method  of  gaining  converts  to  their  religion  by  fire 
and  faggot. <rTo  stigmatize  a  man  .  .  .  with  the  infamous 

'  Particularly  in  the  counties  of  Prince  George,  St.  Mary's,  Talbot 
and  Charles.  Md.  Gas.,  Apr.  12,  May  24,  July  12,  1770;  Pa.  Gas.,  Nov. 
30,  1769. 


NON-IMPORTATION  203 

name  of  an  enemy  to  his  country  can  be  legally  done  by  no 
authority  but  by  that  of  the  "joice  of  the  Legislature."  Of 
Gadsden  he  declared,  in  a  transparent  allusion,  "  this  man 
who  sets  up  for  a  patriot  and  pretends  to  be  a  friend  to 
Liberty,  scruples  not,  like  Croinzvcll,  who  was  the  patriot 
of  Jiis  day,  to  break  through  and  overthrow  her  fundamental 
laws,  while  he  declared  he  would  support  and  defend  them 
all,  and  to  endeavour  to  enslave  his  fellow-subjects,  while 
he  avowed  that  he  only  contended  for  the  preservation  of 
their  liberties.''  Doubtful  as  to  whether  this  patriot  were 
"  a  traitor  or  madman,"  he  proposed  that,  to  avoid  any  ill 
consequences  of  his  disorder,  "  he  may  be  lodged  in  a  certain 
brick  building,  behind  a  certain  white  house  near  the  old 
barracks,  and  there  maintained,  at  least  during  the  ensuing 
change  and  full  of  the  moon,  at  the  public  expence."'- 

The  next  issue  of  the  Gazette  brought  an  answer  from 
*' C.  G.",  full  of  abuse  and  personalities;  and  he  was  an- 
swered in  kind  by  "  Freeman  "  the  following  week.  On  the 
afternoon  of  September  i,  1769,  a  general  meeting  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Charleston  was  held  under  Liberty  Tree  to 
take  counsel  over  the  persistence  of  a  few  people  in  refusing 
to  sign  the  agreement.  It  was  voted  that  the  delinquents 
should  be  given  until  September  7  to  redeem  themselves.^ 
When  that  day  arrived,  handbills  were  distributed  over  the 
city  containing  the  names  of  all  non-subscribers.  It  ap- 
peared that,  exclusive  of  crown  officials,  only  thirty-one  per- 
sons had  withheld  their  signatures."  Among  the  names  pub- 
lished were  those  of  William  Henry  Drayton,  William 
Wragg  and  John  Gordon.  All  three  men  hastened  to  issue 
protests,*  but  the  burden  of  the  controversy  clearly  rested 

^  5".  C.  Gas.,  Sept.  7,  1769;  also  A''.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Oct.  30. 
*  5".  C.  Gas.,  Sept  14,  1769;  also  A'.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Oct.  30. 
'  Gordon  announced  that  he  had  signed  the  early  merchants'  agree- 
ment ;  but  that  in  the  profusion  of  agreements,  attempted  and  signed, 


204 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


with  the  energetic  and  caustic  pen  of  Drayton.  Drayton 
dwelt  long  and  emphatically  on  the  charge  that  the  com- 
mittee— "  that  Harlequin  Medley  Committee  " — had  vio- 
lated the  first  principle  of  liberty  while  pretending  to  strive 
for  it.  He  denounced  "  the  laying  illegal  Restraints  upon 
the  free  Wills  of  free  Men,  who  have  an  undoubted  Right 
to  think  and  act  for  themselves;"  and  he  declared:  "  The 
profanum  vulgus  is  a  species  of  mankind  which  I  respect  as 
I  ought, — it  is  hiimani  generis. — But  I  see  no  reason  why  I 
should  allow  my  opinion  to  be  controlled  by  theirs."  ^ 

Gadsden  replied  in  an  article  bristling  with  insinuation 
and  disparagement.  He  maintained  that  the  proceedings  of 
the  association  did  not  violate  a  single  law  of  the  land ;  and, 
turning  Drayton's  own  phrase,  he  held  that  freemen  had  a 
right  to  associate  to  deal  with  whom  they  pleased.'  The 
mechanic  members  of  the  General  Committee,  aroused  by 
Drayton's  supercilious  allusions,  expressed  their  gratifica- 
tion in  print  that  he  had  '*  been  pleased  to  allow  us  a  place 
amongst  human  beings,"  and  added  reprovingly :  "  Every 
man  is  not  so  lucky  as  to  have  a  fortune  ready  provided  to 
his    hand,    either    by   his    own    or    his   wife's    parents."  ^ 

"  Freeman  "  returned  to  the  controversy  in  two  more 
articles,  addressing  himself  largely  to  the  task  of  refuting 
Gadsden's  assertion  that  the  association  did  not  violate  the 
law.     He  showed,  to  his  own  satisfaction,  that  the  associa- 

he  would  not  be  "  bandyed  from  resolutions  to  resolutions "  and, 
moreover,  he  would  not  adopt  a  measure  of  which  he  disapproved. 
S.  C.  Gas.,  Sept.  14,  1769.  Wragg  wrote  that  he  had  not  signed,  be- 
cause he  did  not  believe  in  subscribing  to  aii'  agreement  to  starve  him- 
self; and  he  argued  that  the  agreement  would  not  accomplish  the 
end  desired.    Ibid.,  Sept.  21. 

^  Ibid.,  Sept.  21,  1769;  also  Bos.  Chron.,  Oct.  30. 

*  5".  C.  Gas.,  Sept.  28,  1769. 

'Ibid.,  Oct.  5,  1769. 


NON-IMPORTATION  205 

tion  bore  the  legal  character  of  a  "  confederacy  "  in  that  it 
was  a  voluntary  combination  by  bonds  or  promises  to  do 
damage  to  innocent  third  parties,  and  that  therefore  the  as- 
sociators  were  punishable  by  law/  Gadsden  now  advanced 
to  a  truly  revolutionary  position.  Passing  over  the  charges 
of  the  illegal  character  of  the  association,  and  citing  the  his- 
tory of  England  as  his  best  justification,  he  affirmed  that, 
whenever  the  people's  rights  were  invaded  in  an  outrageous 
fashion  by  a  corrupt  Parliament  or  an  abandoned  ministry, 
mankind  exerted  ''  those  latent,  though  inherent  rights  of 
SOCIETY,  which  no  climute,  no  time,  no  constitution,  no 
contract,  can  ever  destroy  or  diminish;"  that  under  such 
circumstances  petty  men  who  cavilled  at  measures  were 
properly  disregarded." 

Drayton  was  precluded  from  seeking  redress  for  his 
injuries  in  a  court  of  law,  as  a  majority  of  the  common 
pleas  judges  were  signers  of  the  association  and  as  the  jury 
would  probably  consist  entirely  of  signers,  also.  On  De- 
cember 5,  1769,  he  therefore  had  recourse  to  the  legislature ; 
but  his  petition  was  rejected  by  the  lower  house  without  a 
reading.  The  petition  was  afterwards  published;  ^  it  con- 
tained a  powerful  summary  of  the  arguments  he  had  used 
in  the  Gazette  as  well  as  eloquent  evidence  of  the  efficacy  of 
the  boycott  measures.  He  freely  admitted  that  "  his  com- 
modities which  heretofore  were  of  ready  sale  now  remain 
upon  his  hands,"  and  that  possible  purchasers,  as  soon  as 
they  learned  of  his  ownership  of  the  commodities,  "  im- 

^  Ibid.,  Oct.  12,  26,  1769.  William  Wragg,  maintaining  the  same 
point,  argued  that  it  did  not  follow  that  a  number  of  persons  as- 
sociating together  had  a  right  to  do  what  one  man  might  do,  and  he 
said  that  ParHament  had  acted  on  this  doctrine  in  punishing  tailors 
for  combinations  to  increase  wages.    Ibid.,  Nov.  16. 

*  "  A  Member  of  the  General  Committee."  ibid.,  Oct.  18,  1769. 

*  Ibid.,  Dec.  14,  1769;  also  Bos.  Chroti.,  Jan.  11,  1770. 


2o6  7^^-E  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

mediately  declined  any  further  treaty  for  the  purchase  of 
them,  because  of  the  Resolutions."  .Realizing  that  he  was 
a  beaten  man,  he  sailed  for  England  on  January  3,  1770,  in 
a  ship  that,  appropriately  enough,  carried  goods  outlawed 
by  the  association.  ^  y 

<]A  vigorous  execution  of  the  association  at  Charleston 
was  insured  by  the  fact  that  two-thirds  of  the  General  Com- 
mittee consisted  of  planters  and  mechanics,  only  one-third 
being  merchants  and  factors.  So  successful  was  the  en- 
forcement that  a  recountal  of  even  ,the  striking  instances 
would  be  tedious  and  purposeless.^  /The  General  Com- 
mittee met  regularly  every  Tuesday;  subordinate  to  them 
was  a  vigilant  committee  of  inspection,  which  saw  to  the 
storing  of  goods  or  their  reshipment,  as  the  importer  pre- 
ferred.^ Almost  every  issue  of  the  South  Carolina  Gazette 
contained  statements  of  the  arrival  of  vessels  and  of  the 
transactions  of  the  committee  thereon.  In  only  one  in- 
stance was  the  good  faith  of  the  committee  impugned.  Ann 
and  Benjamin  Mathews  having  been  publicly  proscribed  for 
selling  goods  stored  by  them,  Mrs.  Mathews  retorted,  in  a 
printed  article,  that  the  goods  had  been  ordered  prior  to  the 
association,  that  her  son  had  given  the  promise  to  store 
while  she  was  lying  very  ill,  and  that  stern  necessity  had 
compelled  her  to  open  the  goods.  She  charged  that  in- 
dividual members  of  the  committee,  whom  she  named,  had 
been  permitted  to  receive  articles  ordered  before  the  associa- 
tion had  been  adopted,  and  that  in  one  or  two  instances  their 
articles  had  arrived  after  hers.  The  only  difference  between 
her  offense  and  that  of  Mr.  Rutledge,  who  had  recently 

^  S.  C.  Gas.,  Jan.  4,  1770. 

*  An   interesting   account   may   be    found   in    McCrady,   5".    C.   under 
Royal  Govt.,  pp.  664-676. 

'  5".  C.  Gas.,  Nov.  14,  1769. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


207 


imported  two  horses  in  consequence  of  an  old  order,  was, 
she  averred,  that  he  was  a  man  who  would  not  be  trifled 
with,  while  she  was  a  poor  widow  living  within  two  doors 
of  a  leading  man  of  the  committee  and  thus  in  a  position  to 
take  a  little  cash  from  some  of  his  customers.  By  way  of 
vindication,  the  committee  was  able  to  show  that  the  im- 
portations of  the  Mathews'  had  been  purchased  after  copies 
of  the  South  Carolina  Association  had  arrived  in  England, 
a  fact  not  obtaining  in  the  other  cases.  A  few  months  later, 
the  son  appeared  before  the  committee,  acknowledged  guilt 
and  heartfelt  contrition,  and  promised  to  deliver  all  goods, 
remaining  unsold,  into  charge  of  the  committee.^ 

The  provision  for  the  immediate  reshipment  of  slaves  was 
rigidly  enforced.  For  instance,  Captain  Evans  arrived  on 
May  2,  1770,  from  Africa  with  three  hundred  and  forty- 
five  negroes;  and  after  attending  a  public  meeting  held  to 
consider  his  case,  he  filled  his  casks  and  set  sail  with  his 
cargo  for  the  more  hospitable  shores  of  Georgia.^  It  was 
estimated  by  friends  of  non-importation  that  Great  Britain 
had  lost  not  less  than  £300,000  sterling,  at  a  moderate  com- 
putation, through  the  South  Carolina  regulations  against 
slave  importation.^  Some  little  difficulty  was  experienced 
in  preventing  violations  of  the  association  at  Georgetown 
and  Beaufort;  but  this  was  obviated  when  committees  of 
inspection  were  appointed  there  early  in  February,  1770.* 

Governor  Bull  wrote  on  December  6,  1769,  to  the  home 
government  that  "  the  people  persevere  under  much  in- 
convenience to  trade  in  the  strict  observance  of  the  associa- 
tion;" on  March  6  following,  that  the  royal  officials  who 

^  S.  C.  &  Am.  Gen.  Gaz.,  June  15,  1770;  S.  C.  Gas.,  May  31,  June  28, 
Oct.  4. 
^  Ibid.,  May  17,   1770. 

*  Ibid.,  May  24,  1770. 

*  Ibid.,  Feb.  i,  1770. 


2o8  T^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

had  declined  the  association  "  daily  experience  great  losses 
thereby,  as  Subscribers  are  forbidden  to  purchase  Rice, 
Indigo  &c  from  non  Subscribers;  "  and  again  on  October 
20,  that  the  subscribers  to  the  non-importation  were  "  tak- 
ing large  strides  to  enforce  the  rigid  observing  of  their 
Resolutions  "  through  "  the  vigilance  and  industry  of  the 
leaders,  whose  impetuosity  of  behaviour  and  reproachful 
language  deter  the  moderate,  the  timid  and  the  dependent."  ^ 
Trade  statistics  substantiate  this  view  of  the  situation : 
English  imports  into  the  Caiplinas  dropped  from  £306,600 
in  1769  to  £146,273  in  lyyo.^ 

^^Facts  throwing  light  on  the  observance  of  non-importa- 
tioniin  North  Carolina'are  meager;  but  it  would  appear  that 
•the  province-wide  association,  inaugurated  by  the  assembly 
in  November,  1769,  was  generally  ignored  by  the  mer- 
chantsy  On  June  2,  1770,  a  general  meeting  was  called  at 
Wilmmgton  b}^  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  and  was  attended 
by  "  many  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  six  large  and 
populous  counties,"  mostly  planters.  The  meeting  agreed 
to  boycott  and  publish  all  who  imported  or  purchased  goods 
contrary  to  the  agreement.  A  letter,  issued  later  by  the 
General  Committee  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  upon  the  Cape 
Fear,  expressed  the  hope  that  the  merchants'  "  own  interest 
will  convince  them  of  the  necessity  of  importing  such 
articles,  and  such  only,  as  the  planters  will  purchase."  Com- 
mittees of  inspection  were  established  in  the  six  counties, 
and  those  for  the  towns  of  Wilmington  and  Brunswick 
were  instructed  to  use  particular  vigilance.^  Thereafter, 
the  conditions  of  enforcement  improved.  The  Cape  Fear 
Mercury  of  July  11.  1770,  presented  some  instances  of  the 

^  Brit.  Patters  ("Sparks  Mss"),  vol.  ii,  pp.  202,  206,  217. 

*  Macpherson,  Anjials  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  494-495,  508. 

^  Cape  Fear  Merc,  July  11,  1770;  Connor,  Harnett,  pp.  55-56. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


209 


activity  of  the  Wilmington  Committee  of  Inspection,  al- 
though it  admitted  that  some  merchants  were  ''  daily  pur- 
chasing wines  and  many  other  articles  "  prohibited  by  the 
agreement,  a  course  of  conduct  which  would  surely  lead  to 
the  publication  of  their  names.  At  the  town  of  Newbern 
no  formal  steps  were  taken  to  adopt  an  agreement;  but  it 
was  claimed  in  September,  1770,  that  "the  whole  town 
cannot  now  furnish  a  single  pound  of  Bohea  Tea,"  and  that 
"  all  the  merchants  here  cannot  produce  for  sale  a  single 
yard  of  osnabrigs,  negro  cloth,  coarse  linens  or  scarcely 
an^  European  goods  at  all."  ^ 

^Tln  Georgia,  the  non-importation  association,  which  had 
been  so  reluctantly  adopted,  was  speedily  disregardedrj\ 
Attempts  were  made  to  introduce  slaves  overland  into  South 
Carolina;  but  this  clandestine  trade  was  closely  watched.^ 
On  June  2y,  1770,  a  general  meeting  of  Charleston  inhabi- 
tants voted  solemnly,  without  a  dissenting  voice,  that 
Georgia  ought  "to  be  amputated  from  the  rest  of  their 
brethren,  as  a  rotten  part  that  might  spread  a  dangerous 
infection,"  and  that  all  commercial  intercourse  should  be 
severed,  after  fourteen  days.*  CJThe  desertion  of  Georgia 
had  no  important  results,  since  Georgia  had  no  trading  re- 
lations of  importance. \ 

At  first  thought  it  may  provoke  surprise  that  the  move- 1 
ment  for  a  general  relaxation  of  non-importation  should  | 
be  promoted  by  the  merchants  of  two  of  the  chief  commercial  | 
provinces.  The  merchants  of  the  northern  provinces  were  I 
certain  to  receive  important  material  benefits  from  a  repeal  I 


'  5".  C.  Gas.  &  Conn.  Journ.,  Oct.  2,  1770. 

*  Brit.  Papers  ("  Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  ii,  p.  286. 

*  5".  C.  Gaz.,  May  17,  1770. 

*  Ihid.,  June  28,  Aug.  23,  1770. 


2IO  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

;.of  the  various  trade  and  revenue  statutes;  and  it  was  this 
I  purpose  that  had  caused  them  to  undertake  the  great  non- 
'  importation  union  of  the  provinces  at  the  outset.     But^ 
jthe  months  passed,  they  began  to  discover  that  the  character 
of  their  utiHtarian  revolt  was  changing  under  their  eyes; 
that  self-styled  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  conceived  of  them  as 
bearing  the  standard  in  a  great  struggle  for  constitutional 
jj rights;  and  they  were  chagrined  to  realize  that  they  had,  in. 
I  some  instances,  given  grounds  for  such  an  interpretation, 
ij^urthermore,  the  chief  burden  of  the  non-importation 
had  fallen  upon  the  commercial  provinces,  imports  from 
England  decreasing  two-thirds  in  the  year   1769  whereas 
they  actually  increased  somewhat  in  the  plantation  provinces. 
In  the  early  months,  the  checking  of  the  stream  of  British 
manufactures  had  increased  the  demand  for  goods  which 
had  long  cluttered  their  shelves;  and  the  merchants  dis- 
posed of  much  old  stock  to  advantage.^     Debts,  long  out- 
standing from  their  customers,  were  called  in;  and  remit- 
tances were  made  to  England  at  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent 
advantage  on  the  £100  sterling.^     ButUvhen,  after  a  time, 
I  their  stocks  became  depleted,  they  began  to  feel  the  injustice 

^  The  merchants  obliged  us  at  this  time  "  to  take  old  moth-eaten 
cloths  that  had  lain  rotting  in  the  shops  for  years  and  to  pay  a  mon- 
strous price  for  them;"  this  was  the  statement  made  later  by  a  bitter 
opponent  of  the  non-importation  movement  of  1774.  Seabury,  S., 
Free  Thoughts  on  the  Proceedings  of  the  Continental  Congress.  .  .  . 
By  a  Farmer   (New  York,  1774),  p.  12. 

^  Conn.  Cour.,  July  30,  1770;  Pa.  Gas.,  May  31;  Mass,  Gas.  &  Post 
Boy,  Sept.  24.  Governor  Pownall  declared  in  Parliament  in  March, 
1770,  that  a  monthly  record  of  the  rate  of  exchange  for  the  last  eight 
years  at  the  three  leading  ports  of  America  showed  an  average  rate 
of  167J/2  for  the  £100  sterling  at  Philadelphia,  171^  at  New  York, 
and  1335^  at  Boston ;  while  the  current  rate  at  the  same  ports  was 
145,  162  and  125-123.  The  rise  and  fall  of  exchange,  he  asserted, 
was  the  barometer  of  trade,  a  falling  exchange  signifying  a  doubly 
great  loss  of  trade.    Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi,  p.  860. 


NON-IMPORTATION  211 

of  bearing  the  brunt  of  a  struggle,  from  which  the  whole 
populace  expected  to  reap  large  benefits. 
\  When  they  advanced  their  prices,  they  were  accused  by 
the  populace  of  being  "  monopolists  "  and  "  extortioners;" 
and  no  countenance  was  given  to  their  plea  that  high  profits 
were  necessary  in  order  to  offset  the  general  falling-off  of 
business?^  The  storm  centre  of  controversy  was  the  price 
of  Bohea  tea.  At  Philadelphia  a  memorial  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Committee  of  Merchants,  in  January, 
1770,  which  complained  that  the  price  of  Bohea  had 
reached  5s.  a  pound  and  upward  in  face  of  an  agree-- 
ment  of  dealers  to  maintain  it  at  3s.  gd. ;  and  "A.  B.", 
writing  in  the  Chronicle,  declared  he  would  post  a 
list  of  all  offenders  in  his  shop  and  distribute  it  among  his 
neighbors.^  At  New  York,  the  Committee  of  Merchants 
advertised  in  the  New  York  Journal,  September  28,  1769,. 
that  a  careful  investigation  had  failed  to  disclose  any  en- 
hancement of  prices;  but  on  February  24,  1770,  they  found 
it  necessary  to  call  the  tea  dealers  before  them  and  extract 
a  promise  to  keep  the  retail  price  of  Bohea  down  to  5s.  6d. 
and  the  wholesale  price  at  4s.  6d."  A  few  weeks  later,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  city  assembled,  and  called  some  of  the 
delinquents  before  them.^  Nevertheless,  the  price  of  tea 
continued  its  ascent.  Bohea  reached  los.  a  pound  at 
Annapolis  by  the  middle  of  the  year;  and  when  Williams 
&  Company,  the  worst  offenders,  refused  to  conform  to  the 

^  Pa.  Chron.,  Jan.  29,  1770.  It  was  announced  in  the  same  issue 
that  thereafter  the  size  of  the  Chronicle  would  be  smaller,  because  of 
the  rise  in  the  price  of  paper.  In  the  issue  of  July  22,,  a  writer 
claimed  that  tea  had  reached  the  "  unconscionable  sum  of  los.,"  a 
paper  of  pins  had  advanced  from  lod.  to  2s.  gd.,  and  other  articles 
were  equally  high  in  proportion. 

^N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Feb.  26,  1770. 

*  Ibid.,  Mch.  12,  1770;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  July  12. 


212  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

demand  of  the  committee  of  inspection,  the  firm  was  pro- 
scribed in  the  newspapers/  .A  few  complaints  were  also 
heard  at  Boston  against  high  prices,  although  apparently  no 
attempts  were  made  to  regulate  prices  there.^^^ 

^While  the  importing  merchants  were  suffering  a  decline 
inTrade  and  the  radical  class  in  the  population  was  beginning 
to  dominate  the  situation,  a  further  affliction  came  in  the 
form  of  a  decrease  in  the  export  trade  to  England.N^.Aii 
excessive  exportation  of  American  products  to  England  in 
1768  produced  a  slump  in  the  export  market  in  the  year 
1769,  and  there  was  only  a  slow  recovery  in  the  next  few 
years.  This  condition  bore  ff'oportionately  more  severely 
upon  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  than  upon  New  Eng- 
land.^ *'  Interest,  all  powerful  Interest,  will  bear  down 
Patriotism,"  predicted  a  Quaker  merchant  on  December  9, 
1769.  "...  Romans  we  are  not  as  they  were  formerly, 
when  they  despised  Riches  and  Grandeur,  abode  in  extreme 
poverty  and  sacrificed  every  pleasant  enjoyment  for  the 
love  and  service  of  their  Country."  * 

^"hus,  the  seeds  of  discontent  were  pretty  generously  sown 
among  the  merchants  when  news  reached  America  that 
Parliament  had,  on  April  12,  1770,  repealed  the  most  im- 
portant portions  of  the  law  against  which  their  agreements 
were  directed.'^\This  news  did  not  come  as  a  surprise,  as 
the  governors  Kad  been  notified  by  a  letter  of  May  13,  1769 
tliat  such  a  measure  was  under  contemplation  and  that  the 
taxes  on  glass,  paper  and  colors  had  been  laid  "  Contrary 

1  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  2,  1770. 

*  Bos.  Chron.,  Dec.  11,  1769;  Mass.  Gas.  &  News-Letter,  Dec.  21. 

'  There  was  some  decrease  in  the  export  trade  of  the  plantation 
pronnces,  also;  but  the  merchants  there  did  not  dominate  the  non- 
importation  movement. 

*  Letter  of  Henry  Drinker;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  41. 

*  ID  George  III.  c.  17.    To  be  operative  on  December  i,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTATION  213 


/ 


to  the  true  principles  of  Commerce."  V  The  reasons  stated 
for  the  proposed  repeal  coincided  exactly  with  those  urged, 
in  the  formal  utterances  of  the  merchant  class  in  America. ^y 
^j/When  Lord  North  carried  through  the  repeal  bill  on  the  plea 
that  the  duties  affected  were  anti-commercial,  the  merchants 
throughout  the  commercial  provinces,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Bostonians,  who  had  taken  an  advanced  stand  in  their  ■ 
pamphlet  of  December,  1769,  had  a  right  to  feel  self-gratu- 
latory.     They  had  obtained  all  the  remedial  legislation  that 
they  had  been  specifically  demanding,  save  only  the  rescind- 
ing  of  the  tea  duty  which  had  been  withheld  because  the 
king  believed  t^at  "there  must  always  be  one  tax  to  keep^ 
up  the  right."  ^ 

^The  only  question  before  them  was  whether  they,  as  • 
practical  men  of  business,!  would ,  be  justified  in  continuing 
their  costly  boycott  a^nst  Great  Britain  for  the  sake  of 
the  one  remaining  taxTr^As  in  1766,  they  felt  it  was  no 
concern  of  theirs  that  the  tea  tax  was  retained  as  an  assertion 
of  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies  for  revenue 

*  I  A'".  /.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  109-110. 

'  North  was  primarily  interested  in  the  fact  that  the  duties  were 
anti-commercial  from  the  standpoint  of  the  home  merchants,  declaring 
"  so  many  articles,  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  are,  by  the  Act 
in  question,  subject  to  taxation,  that  it  must  astonish  every  reason- 
able man  to  think  how  so  preposterous  a  law  could  originally  obtain 
existence  from  a  British  legislature."  Parliamentary  History,  vol. 
xvi,  pp.  853-855. 

*  Donne,  W.  B.  Correspondence  of  George  III  with  Lord  North 
(London,  1867),  vol.  i,  p.  202. 

^  E.  g.  vide  letter  of  Phila.  Comm.  to  N.  Y.  Comm.,  May  15,  1770. 
in  N.  Y.  Journ-.,  Aug.  16,  1770.  As  "  Cethegus  "  put  it,  "  It  is  vain  to 
think  that  we  can  hold  Breath  always  .  .  .  We  have  only  to  chuse 
whether  to  unite  in  maintaining  an  Agreement  of  a  more  restricted 
Nature,  or  to  go  on  disputing  about  a  Shadow  which  cannot  longer  be 
realized."  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Oct.  8,  1770;  also  /  .V.  /.  Arch., 
vol.  xxvii,  pp.  282-283. 


214  ^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

only ;  or  that  earlier  revenue  duties  remained  on  the  statute 
books ;  or  that  the  Declaratory  Act  continued , in  its  pristine 
vigor  as  a  part  of  the  imperial  constitution^  To  these  gen- 
eralizations, the  merchants  of  Massachusettsronstituted  an 
exception,  probably  because  the  warp  of  their  prosperity  was 
woven  SQ  closely  with  the  woof  of  an  unrestricted  foreign 
commerce/> 

Upon  fiearing  that  the  bill  for  partial  repeal  of  the  Towns- 
hend  duties  was  pending  passage  in  Parliament,"  the  South 
Carolina  General  Committee  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
the  committees  of  the  other  provinces  on  April  25,  1770. 
The  letter  recounted  that  the  provinces  had  adopted  agree- 
ments differing  "  in  Extent  of  Matter  and  Limitations  of 
Time,"  and  that  South  Carolina,  being  among  the  last  to 
act,  had  been  the  most  comprehensive  in  her  plan,  specifying 
among  her  sine  qua  non  demands  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Customs  Board  and  of  the  oppressive  vice-admiralty  juris- 
dictionX  The  committee  asserted  that,  if  any  province  should 
take  advantage  of  the  repeal  of  "  these  trifling  duties  "  to 
re-open  trade  with  Great  Britain,  it  would  have  been  in- 
finitely better  to  have  submitted  to  the  yoke  from  the  begin- 
ning/ cin  this  letter  and  in  a  later  one,  the  northern  prov- 
inces were  exhorted  to  extend  their  agreements  to  cover  all 
the  demands  named  in  the  South  Carolina  Association."^ 
^^uthentic  news  of  the  passage  of  the  repeal  bill  reached 
America  early  in  May,  lyyo.y  Outside  of  Boston  and  a 
few  other  places  of  minor  importance,  there  ensued,  through- 
out the  commercial  provinces,  several  perplexing  months  of 
indecision/  interrupted   only  by   the   premature  break   of 

1  AT.  C.  Col.  Rccs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  197-199;  published  at  the  time  in  S. 
C.  Gas.,  May  17,  1770;  Pa.  Gas.,  May  24;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  May  17;  Bos. 
Gas.,  May  28. 

*The  second  letter  was  dated  June  27;  S.  C.  Gas.,  June  28,  1770; 
also  A'^.  Y.  Journ.,  July  12. 


NON-IMPORTA  TION  2 1 5 

Albany,  the  Rhode  Island  ports  and  Portsmouth  from  the 
non-importation  combination.  The  merchants  of  Albany 
rescinded  their  agreement  on  May  10  in  favor  of  the  non- 
importation of  tea  alone;  but  when,  after  a  few  weeks,  they 
learned  that  Boston  and  New  York  remained  steadfast,  they 
hastened  to  resume  their  agreement  and  to  countermand  the 
orders  which  had  been  sent  to  England  in  the  meantime/ 

Only  a  few  days  behind  Albany^the  merchants  of  New- 
port and  Providence  cast  aside  their  agreements  and  dis- 
charged their  committees  of  inspections  '  "  They  were 
dragged  in  the  first  place  like  an  ox  to  the  slaughter,  into 
the  non-importation  agreement  .  .  .,"  wrote  a  contempor- 
ary. "Adherence  to  the  non-importation  agreement  in  them 
would  have  been  acting  out  of  character  and  in  contradiction 
to  the  opinion  of  the  country."  ^  AVithin  a  week  the  answer 
came  from  the  great  ports  ?  mass  meetings  at  Philadelphia 
and  New  York  and  a  meeting  of  merchants  at  Boston  de- 
clared an  absolute  boyqptt  against  the  merchants  of  Rhode 
Island.  The  town  of  'Providence  bow  took  things  in  hand, 
and  followed  the  prudent  example  set  by  Albany  by  scurry- 
ing back  under  cover  of  the  agreement,  announcing  a  boy- 
cott against  any  who  should  fcave  dealings  with  the  aban- 
doned Newport  importers.^  ""WThe  merchants  of  Newport 
re-enacted  their  agreement  also;  but  their  resolution  to 
store  rather  than  re-ship  the  goods  recently  arrived  inclined 
the  other  provinces  to  believe  that  the  action  of  Newport 
was  merely  a  screen  for  clandestine  importations.^  A  wave 

^  Ms.  in  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.;  A'.   Y.  Joitrn.,  Aug.  23,  30,   1770;  .V.   Y. 
Gas.  &  Merc,  Sept.  24. 

*  Bos.  Gaz.,  May  28,  1770. 

'  "(Rachel"  in  New  London  Gazette,  June  22,  1770. 

*  Pa.   Gas.,   May  24,    1770;   A'.    Y.  Journ.,  June  7;   Bos.   Eve.   Post, 
May  28. 

^  Prov.  Gac.  June  2,  9.  1770. 


2i6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763^1776 

of  anger  swept  up  and  down  the  coast ;  and  by  the  early  days 
of  July  trading  relations  had  been  suspended  by  the  leading 
ports  of  eight  provinces/  The  Rhode  Islanders  began  to 
perceive,  as  Stephen  Collins  had  predicted,  that  where  they 
gained  a  penny  in  the  trade  of  British  drygoods,  they  stood 
a  chance  of  losing  a  pound  in  their  coastwise  trade.'/'  The 
Boston  trade  sent  a  committee,  headed  by  Molineux,  to 
Newport  and  Providence  to  induce  the  merchants  to  enter 
new  resolutions.  Both. towns  acceded — the  Newport  mer- 
chants on  August  20  ^ — and,  on  a  recommendation  of  the 
Boston  merchants,  the  merchants  of  Philadelphia  and 
Charleston  now  re-established  trading  connections  with  the 
city.^ 

In  New  Hampshire,  the  merchants  had  remained  un- 
sympathetic with  the  non-importation  movement  all  along; 
but,  it  will  be  remembered,  the  inhabitants  in  general  had 
been  inflamed  to  resolutions  of  protest  and  non-importation 
by  the  event  of  the  Boston  Massacre.  Several  weeks  later, 
the  Boston  trade  learned  that  Portsmouth  merchants  were 
importing  British  merchandise  on  a  larger  scale  than  ever  be- 
fore; and  on  June  18,  they  instituted  a  boycott  against  that 
province.^  The  trading  towns  on  the  Connecticut  river 
followed  the  example  of  Boston.®  The  inhabitants  of  the 
little  parish  of  Rye,  New  Hampshire,  near  the  Massachu- 

1  Mass.,  N.  Y.,  Conn.,  Pa.,  Md.,  Del.,  N.  C,  S.  C.  Vide  files  of  A^.  7. 
Journ.  Newport  coasting-sloops  were  actually  turned  back  at  Marble- 
head,  New  Haven,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chester,  Baltimore,  Nor- 
iolk  and  Charleston,  S.  C. 

'  Collins,  Letter-Book  1760-1773,  June  8,  1770. 

^Newport  Merc.,  Aug.  27,  1770;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  30. 

*Mass.  Spy,  Aug.  14,  1770;  Pa.  Gas.,  Sept.  20;  S.  C.  Gac,  Oct.  18,  25. 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  June  11,  25,  1770.  For  an  instance  of  enforcement, 
vide  ibid.,  July  9. 

^  Essex  Gas.,  July  2,  1770. 


~^ 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION  2 1 7 

setts  border,  voted  unanimously  to  unite  with  Boston  in  non- 
importation; ^  but  Portsmouth,  the  chief  centre  of  popula- 
tion, remained  unmoved.  "  One  of  the  Boston  zealots  was 
immediately  dispatched  here,"  wrote  Governor  Wentworth 
to  the  home  government ;  and  he  carried  with  him  a  ready- 
prepared  report,  "  expressed  in  the  most  abusive  terms," 
for  adoption  by  the  town  meeting.  But  his  machinations 
were  in  vain;  he  'decamped  precipitately  for  Boston"  in 
fear  of  tar  and  feathers;  and  the  town  meeting,  by  a  poll 
of  ten  to  one,  dismissed  the  whole  matter  and  dissolved 
the  meeting.^ 

After  all,^  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  non-importation 
movement  were  the  agreements  of  the  great  trading  towns 
of  Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  On  the  action  of 
these  towns  depended  the  integrity  of  the  commercial  com- 
bination. Should  the  merchants  of  any  of  these  towns  accept 
the  partial  repeal  as  satisfactory  and  proceed  to  revoke  their 
boycott  of  British  importations,  this  breach  in  the  non-im-:: 
portation  dike  would  render  the  whole  barrier  useless.^ 
^There  was  no  indecision  at  Boston/  When  the  merchants 
there  learned,  at  a  meeting  of  April  25,  1770,  that  some  of 
their  number  had  ordered  goods  to  be  shipped  upon  the 
passage  of  the  partial  repeal,  it  was  agreed  that  this  event 
would  not  justify  a  re-opening  of  trade,  and  it  was  voted  that 
the  good^,  should  be  re-shipped  immediately  upon  their 
arrival.^ /^]But  in  both  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  there 
was  a  sharp  division  of  sentiment,  the  alignment  being  be- 

^  iV.  H.  Gaz.,  July  27,  1770;  also  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  July  30. 

*  Brit.  Papers  ("  Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  i,  p.  18;  N.  H,  Gas.,  July  13,  1770. 
*  Letter  of  Boston  Comm.  in  N.  Y.  Journ.,  May  10,  1770.  Tea  was 
excepted  from  this  vote  upon  the  belief  that  the  act  of  11  George  I, 
c.  30,  sec.  8,  would  thereby  be  violated.  Ibid.,  July  5.  The  merchants 
were  later  obliged  to  publish  the  names  of  five  merchants  who  refused 
to  obey.    Mass.  Spy,  Aug.  14. 


2i8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

tween  the  leading  merchants,  who  were  wilHng-  to  accept 
the  remedial  legislation  of  Parliament  as  the  best  that  could 
be  attained  under  the  circumstances,  and  the  non-mercantile, 
propertyless  population,  who  were  fired  with  the  current 
political  views  and  considered  the  issue  of  taxation  un- 
changedimtil  every  one  of  the  Townshend  duties  had  been 
removec^^Jii  both  cities,  there  was  an  active  dispute  over 
the  ments  of  the  situation,  and  a  further  controversy  over 
the  question  of  where  the  power  lay  to  re-open  importation. 
/'^It  was  clear  that  the  merchants  had  been  the  prime  movers 
m  non-importation;  but  they  had  depended  upon  the  popu- 
^  lace  for  endorsement  and  support.  Could  the  merchants 
^  give  up  their  agreement  without  the  consent  of  the  populace?^ 
At  Philadelphia,  the  importers  of  British  goods  had  been 
nursing  a  particular  grievance  because  the  importers  of 
wines  and  molasses  remained  undisturbed  in  their  traffic, 
notwithstanding  that  duties  derived  from  these  sources  were 
piling  up  in  the  British  treasury.  Moreover,  the  Maryland 
Agreement,  differing  from  the  Philadelphia  Agreement,  per- 
mitted the  importation  of  coarse  woolens,  an  article  neces- 
sary for  the  Indian  trade ;  and  the  Maryland  merchants  were 
running  away  with  their  trade. ^  As  a  protest,  four  mem- 
bers, including  John  Reynell,  the  chairman,  resigned  from 
the  Committee  of  Merchants,  and  three  others  ceased  to  at- 
tend meetings;  the  committee  was  reduced  to  twelve  mem- 
bers.^ These  ex-members,  with  other  interested  merchants, 
began  to  agitate  a  relaxation  of  the  agreement,  and  quickly 
drew  the  fire  of  the  newspaper  writers. 

An  article  in  the  Pennsylvania  Chronicle,  May  7,  1770, 
maintained  that  the  merchants  would  be  betra3ang  the 
American  cause,  if  importation  were  resumed,  and  that  the 

'  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  42-43. 

^  Circular  letter  of  the  "  late  Committee,"  Pa.  Chron.,  Oct.  i,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTATION  219 

consuming  class  would  buy  no  goods  from  them  in  such  a 
contingency/  Other  writers  denied  that  two  or  three  hun- 
dred signers  of  the  agreement  had  "  the  sole  right  to  deter- 
mine a  question  of  liberty  that  most  nearly  concerns  every 
freeman  of  this  province."  ^  A  meeting  of  the  subscribers 
of  the  non-importation  was  called  for  Monday  afternoon, 
May  14.  As  many  of  the  signers  were  not  in  the  import- 
ing business  and  were  thus  likely  to  vote  a  continuance  of 
the  agreement,  the  importing  merchants  held  several  sessions 
in  preparation  for  the  occasion  and  agreed  that  each  should 
be  present  promptly  at  the  hour  set  and  bring  with  him  a 
friend.  This  scheme  was  detected  at  the  last  moment  and 
exposed  in  a  broadside,  addressed  to  the  artificers,  manu- 
facturers and  mechanics,  probably  written  by  Charles  Thom- 
son.^ As  a  result,  the  meeting,  when  it  assembled,  was 
prevailed  upon  to  postpone  definite  action  until  June  5  and, 
in  the  meantime,  to  consult  with  the  merchants  of  New 
York  and  Boston.* 

^The  merchants  of  the  sister  ports,  however,  declared 
against  any  change  in  their  agreements,  Boston  on  principle, 
New  York  because  of  the  hope  that  the  tea  duty  would  be 
repealed  in  the  next  few  weeks. ^  On  May  23,  a  meeting 
of  the  workingmen  and  tradesmen  of  Philadelphia  resolved 
their  unanimous  determination  "  to  render  the  non-importa- 
tion, as  it  now  stands,  permanent,"  and  agreed  to  support 
this  action  at  the  meeting  of  June  5.®    About  the  sanie  time, 

^  For  similar  arguments,  vide  "Tradesman"  in  ibid.,  May  21,  1770; 
■"  Nestor  "  in  Pa.  Journ.,  July  12,  Aug.  9. 

* "  Cato "  in  Pa.  Chron.,  June  4,  1770;  "Son  of  Liberty"  in  Pa. 
Gaz.,  May  31 ;  letter  from  Philadelphia  in  .V.  Y.  lonrn.,  May  31. 

*  Pa.  Chron.,  May  14,  1770;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  43-44. 

*  .v.  Y.  Joiirn.,  Aug.  16,  1770. 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  May  28,  1770;  .V.  Y.  Journ.,  May  24,  Aug.  16. 
®  Pa.  Gaz.,  May  24,  1770;  also  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  May  31. 


220  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

^  letters  were  received  by  Joseph  Galloway  and  Charles  Thom- 
son from  Doctor  Franklin  in  England,  urging  Philadelphia 
to  persist  intjje  agreement;  and  his  advice  had  "  wonder- 
ful effects."  ^5>Xhe  trend  of  events  was  distinctly  turning  in 
favor  of  the  opponents  of  change;  and  at  the  general  meet- 
ing of  inhabitants  on  June  5,  the  signers  of  the  agreement, 
having  first  met  by  themselves,  agreed,  with  only  four  dis- 
senting votes,  to  make  ho  alteration  in  it  "  at  this  time^^^ 

The  inhabitants  of  New  York  engaged  in  a  similar  con- 
troversy, although  the  outcome  was  different.  The  non- 
importation pact  was  there  based  upon  an  agreement  of  the 
merchants,  confirmed  and  supported  by  a  separate  agree- 
ment of  the  tradesmen  and  workingmen.  The  issue  be- 
tween the  two  groups  was  made  clear  in  the  opening  sen- 
tences of  a  broadside  issued  about  the  middle  of  May: 
"  Nothing  can  be  more  flagrantly  wrong  than  the  Assertion 
of  some  of  our  Mercantile  Dons  that  the  Mechanics  have 
no  Right  to  give  their  Sentiments  about  the  Importation  of 
British  Commodities.  .  .  .  What  particular  Class  among 
us  has  an  exclusive  Right  to  decide  a  Question  of  General 
Concern?"  ^ 

At  a  meeting  on  May  18,  prompted  by  the  letter  from 
Philadelphia,  the  merchants  decided,  as  we  have  seen,  "  to 
wait  a  few  Weeks  longer  in  Hopes  of  hearing  the  Duty  on 
Tea  would  also  be  repealed  "  before  taking  any  action.* 
This  brought  about  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  all  ranks, 
who  voted  by  a  large  majority  to  preserve  the  non-importa- 
tion inviolate  and  to  boycott  all  persons  who  should  trans- 
gress it.     They  also  issued  a  pronunciamento  against  the 

^  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  45 ;  Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  223. 

'^  Pa.  Gas.,  June  7,  1770. 

^  Broadside  in  N.  Y.  Pub.  Libr.,  signed  "  Brutus." 

*  N.  Y.  Joiirn.,  May  24,  Aug.  16,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTATION  221 

cargo  of  a  Glasgow  vessel  then  in  the  harbor,  a  matter  al- 
ready dealt  with  in  regular  manner  by  the  Committee  of 
Merchants/  The  Committee  of  Merchants  accepted  the 
issue,  resigned  their  seats  because  of  the  irregular  proceed- 
ings of  the  mass  meeting,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  being 
re-elected  at  a  public  meeting  of  citizens."  <:^ji  the  strength 
of  this  vindication,  the  Committee  of  Merchants,  now  con- 
vinced that  hope  of  a  total  repeal  of  the  Townshend  duties 
was  illusory,  determined  to  abandon  the  agreement  and  con- 
fine non-importation  only  to  dutied  articles^and  for  this 
purpose  they  invited  the  merchants  of  the  non-importing 
commercial  provinces  to  send  delegates  to  a  congress  at 
Norwalk  on  June  i8,  "  to  adopt  one  general  solid  System 
for  the  Benefit  of  the  Whole,  that  no  one  Colony  may  be 
liable  to  the  Censure  or  Reproaches  of  another  .  .  ."  ' 

The  invitation  found  the  other  trading  towns  in  anything 
but  a  receptive  mood.  The  Boston  trade  voted  unanimously 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  chiefl}-  for  the  reason  that  any 
deviation  from  the  present  agreement  would  create  an  im- 
pression in  England  prejudicial  to  a  further  redress  of 
grievances.^  The  merchants  of  Essex  County,  New  Jersey, 
asked  pointedly :  "  Shall  we  meet  to  consult  whether  we  have 
Honour  or  Faith  or  public  Virtue  ...  If  you  had  proposed 
a  Meeting  for  strengthening  .  .  .  the  Resolutions  of  the 
Colonies,  we  should  have  joined  you."  ^  Hardly  less  de- 
cisive were  the  answers  of  meetings  at  Newark  and  New 

^  This  meeting  occurred  on  May  30.    Ibid.,  June  7,  1770. 

*  The  re-election  occurred  on  June  i.    A'.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  June  4, 
1770;  A^  Y.  fount.,  June  7. 

*  Circular  letter  of  June  2;  New  London  Gaz.,  June  15,  1770;  also 
A''.  Y.  Journ.,  June  28,  Aug.  16. 

*  The  Boston  meeting  occurred  on  June  8.     Bos.  Eve.  Post,  June  11, 
1770;  also  A^  Y.  Journ.,  June  21. 

^  Ibid.,  July  5,  1770;  also  i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  193-194. 


222  ^^-E  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Brunswick  a  few  days  later,  although  the  people  of  the  latter 
place  agreed  to  accept  the  conclusions  of  the  Norwalk  con- 
gress/ Even  the  Philadelphia  merchants,  stiffened  by  the 
action  of  the  public  meeting  of  June  5,  advised  against  pre- 
cipitate measures,  and  refused  to  take  part  in  the  proposed 
congress."  Only  at  Hartford  and  Providence  did  the  mer- 
chants actually  appoint  delegates;  and  the  latter  rescinded 
/heir  action  when  they  learned  of  Boston's  declination.^ 
(The  New  Yorkers  were  thus^forced  to  solve  their  problem 
according  to  their  own  lights.y 

It  was  probably  the  unfaK^orable  action  of  the  Boston 
merchants  that  determined  the  New  York  promoters  of 
importation  to  abandon  the  project  of  a  congress  and  to 
concentrate  their  efforts  at  once  on  the  local  situation. 
Their  plan  was  to  ascertain  the  sentiments  of  the  inhabitants 
by  a  house-to-house  poll.  When  "  a  number  of  selfish,  mer- 
cenary importers  and  a  few  mechanicks  "  proposed  this 
course  to  the  Committee  of  Merchants,  that  body,  while 
withholding  official  assent,  made  it  clear  that  they  would  not 
discountenance  the  proceedings.*  How  deeply  individual 
members  of  the  committee  were  interested  in  this  scheme 
was  revealed  on  June  14  when  the  ultra-radical  Isaac  Sears 
and  the  shopkeeper  Peter  Vander  Voort  resigned  member- 
ship on  the  ground  that  many  of  the  committee  were  work- 
ing to  break  through  the  agreement.^     Beginning  on  June 

*  N.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Merc,  Aug.  6,  1770;  A''.  Y.  Journ.,  June  28. 

*  Letter  of  June  18;  'ibid.,  Aug.  9,  1770. 

'  New  London  Gas.,  June  15.  1770;  Prov.  Gas.,  June  16. 

*  A'".  Y.  Journ.,  June  21,  1770.  The  words  quoted  are  taken  from 
an  account  by  "  A  Son  of  Liberty "  in  the  same  issue.  Vide  also  iV. 
Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  July  2. 

*iV.  Y.  Journ.,  June  21,  1770.  Jacob  Watson  and  Edward  Laight 
were  among  those  who  worked  openly  for  an  alteration  of  the  agree- 
ment.    Ibid.,  July  12. 


NON-IMPORTATION  223 

12,  the  poll  was  taken  by  persons  appointed  in  each  ward, 
each  inhabitant  being  asked  if  he  approved  of  confining  non- 
importation to  tea  and  other  dutied  articles,  provided  Boston 
and  Philadelphia  concurred;  or  if  he  preferred  the  continu- 
ance of  the  present  agreement.     Now,  as  the  promoters  of 
the  poll  knew  of  the  unfaltering  resolution  of  Boston,  it  is         llr  ^ 
clear,  as  the  non-importers  charged,  that  their  motive  was     ^     ^ 
to  feel  the  pulse  of  the  people  with  a  view  of  determining       r  V     \ 
whether  it  would  be  safe  to  ask  their  support  later  when  -\  S    'J 

it  was  learned  that  the  other  two  towns  had  refused  to  co-  .j^^  .(^ 

operate.  .iThe  canvass  showed  that  1180  persons  favored       }<r     J( 
re-opening  trade  in  concert  with  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  j  ^ 

about  300  were  indifferent  or  unwilling  to  talk,  and  a  minor- 
ity, whose  number  was  not  stated,  preferred  the  existing 
system.  Colden  noted  that  "  the  principal  Inhabitants  " 
voted  for  importation  and  that  "  few  of  any  distinction  de- 
clared in  opposition  to  it."  ^  The  opposition  protested  that 
the  voters  for  importation  were  hardly  one-fourth  of  the 
city  people  entitled  to  vote,  and  that  the  country  folks  should 
have  been  consulted. 

On  June  16,  letters  were  despatched  to  Boston  and  Phila- 
delphia with  news  of  the  New  York  vote.  The  merchants 
in  those  places,  however,  saw  no  reason  for  revising  their 
former  decisions."     On  July  4  a  broadside,  scattered  about 

'  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  223. 

'A''.  Y.  Journ.,  July  5,  1770;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  July  2.  The  Boston 
Committee  of  Merchants  reminded  the  New  York  'Committee  that^ 
as  the  preamble  of  the  Townshend  Act  remained  unrepealed,  it  was 
clear  that  the  tea  duty  was  retained  expressly  for  raising  a  revenue. 
Furthermore,  they  asserted  that  the  sentiment  of  Boston  had  been 
ascertained  in  the  surest  way.  "  that  is,  not  by  appointing  Gentlemen 
to  go  thro'  the  several  Wards,  asking  Persons  singly,  but  by  calling 
a  Meeting  and  there  coming  to  a  Conclusion  after  fair  Debate  and 
reasoning  upon  the  Point."  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  July  30.  From 
the  merchants  at  Hartford,  where  Silas  Deane  was  a  member  of  the 
committee,  came  likewise  a  letter  protesting  against  any  alteration. 
Conn.  Journ.,  July  2y. 


224 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


New  York,  inquired  of  the  public  whether,  in  face  of  this 
uniform  response,  it  would  be  just  or  politic  or  honorable  for 
New  York  to  undertake  a  measure  "  independent  of  the  Ap- 
probation of  those  whose  hearty  Concurrence  we  have  hither- 
to solicited  ?  "  S^ew  York  was  reminded  of  having  origin- 
ated non-importation  at  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act;  "  and 
shall  New  York  be  the  first  to  disgrace  an  Expedient  origin- 
ally devised  by  itself  .  .  .  ?"  ^  ^ 

But  this  appeal  and  others  like  it  fell  on  deaf  ears.  The 
latter  days  of  June  brought  to  New  York  authentic  news  that 
an  act  of  Parliament  had  been  passed  with  the  sole  view  of 
relieving  business  stringency  in  that  province.  This  was  the 
statute  exempting  New  York  temporarily  from  the  opera- 
tions of  the  general  prohibition  of  legal-tender  currency, 
enacted  in  1764,  and  authorizing  her  to  issue  £120,000  in 
legal-tender  paper  money."  This  event  removed  any  re- 
maining misgivings  that  the  merchants  may  have  felt;  the 
body  of  the  trade  worked  with  precision  and  speed.  The 
group  solidarity  of  the  merchants  was  clearly  revealed  by 
an  article  from  New  York  in  a  Boston  newspaper,  contain- 
ing the  names  of  some  of  those  who  were  working  hardest 
for  a  re-opening  of  trade.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  persons  named  in  the  article,  eighty-five  were  classed 
as  merchants  or  importers;  eighteen  as  dealers  or  shop- 
keepers ;  three  as  vendue-masters ;  two  as  brewers.  Of  work- 
ingmen  (such  as  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  rope-makers,  etc.), 
there  were  but  twelve.^  Fifteen  of  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight   were   members   of   the   Committee   of    Mer- 

^  Signed  "Fabius;"  N.   Y.  Journ.,  July  12,  1770. 

*  10  George  III,  c.  35 ;  Becker,  N.  Y.  Parties,  1760-1776,  pp.  69-71, 
77-79,  88. 

'"Bona  Fide"  in  Bos.  Gaz.,  July  23,  1770.  To  complete  the  list, 
there  were  three  lawyers,  three  royal  officials,  Hugh  Gaine,  editor  of 
the  New  York  Gazette  and  Mercury,  and  James  DeLancey,  Esq., 
member  of  the  General  Assembly. 


NON-IMPORT  A  TION 


225 


chants  (of  which  there  were  at  that  time  twenty-two  mem- 
bers in  all)  ;  and  among  the  fifteen  was  Isaac  Low,  the 
chairman.  Colden  is  authority  for  the  assertion  that  all 
the  members  of  the  governor's  council,  with  a  single  ex- 
ception, and  the  city  representatives  in  the  Assembly  were 
zealous  advocates  of  importation/  The  merchants  had  an 
excellent  talking-point  in  the  exaggerated  charges  of  viola- 
tions of  non-importation  at  Boston ;  and  especially  convinc- 
ing for  their  purpose  proved  a  timely  pamphlet  from  John 
Mein's  press,  which  purported  to  give  an  account  of  British 
importations  into  Boston  from  January  i  to  June  19  of 
the  current  year." 

The  first  step  taken  by  the  New  York  Committee  of  Mer- 
chants, upon  hearing  from  Boston,  was  to  call  a  meeting  of 
citizens  and  read  the  replies  that  had  come  from  Philadelphia 
and  Boston.^  The  crowd  that  assembled  was  not  as  small 
as  the  promoters  of  the  meeting  had  apparently  intended, 
for  a  large  majority  opposed  the  proposal  for  taking  another 
poll  of  the  city.  A  motion  was  then  made  that  the  letters 
read  should  be  published,  so  that  the  people  might  better 
judge  of  the  expediency  of  departing  from  the  agreement; 
but  the  committee,  through  their  chairman,  declined  to  per- 
mit publication.  A  few  days  later,  on  Saturday,  July  7,  a 
number  of  merchants  conferred  privately  with  several 
members  of  the  committee,  and  decided,  notwithstanding 
the  public  vote,  that  a  poll  of  the  city  should  be  taken  at 
once.     With  the  sanction  of  the  committee,  two  persons,  one 

^  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  229. 

^  Reprinted  in  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Aug.  27,  1770.  For  a  pointed 
correspondence  between  the  Boston  and  New  York  committees  with 
regard  to  this  pamphlet,  vide  the  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  9,  and  Bos.  Eve. 
Post,  Sept.  10. 

^  For  this  meeting  and  the  troubles  during  the  poll,  vide  two  letters 
in  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  July  16,  1770;  "  A  Citizen"  in  N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc, 
July  23 ;  accounts  in  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  218-220. 


226  THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

of  each  party,  were  therefore  appointed  to  canvass  each  ward, 
presenting  to  the  citizens,  without  comment,  this  propo- 
sition :  as  the  people  of  Boston  and  Philadelphia  are  in 
favor  of  maintaining  their  agreements  unchanged,  is  it  your 
judgment  "  that  we  should  also  abide  by  our  present  Non- 
Importation  Agreement;  or  to  import  every  Thing  except 
the  Articles  which  are,  or  may  hereafter  be,  subject  to 
Duty?" 

At  noon  the  same  day,  the  radicals,  led  by  Isaac  Sears 
and  Alexander  ]McDougall,  met  at  the  City  Hall,  declared 
unanimously  against  an  importation,  and  agreed  to  use  all 
lawful  means  to  oppose  it.  In  the  evening  a  mob  collected, 
parading  the  streets  with  a  flag  inscribed  with  the  legend, 
"  Liberty  and  no  Importation  but  in  Union  with  the  other 
Colonies,"  hissing  and  hooting  at  the  doors  of  those  who 
favored  importation.  A  crowd  of  the  opposition  gathered, 
and  under  the  leadership  of  Elias  Desbrosses,  magistrate 
of  the  city  and  already  slated  for  the  next  presidency  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  they  came  in  collision  with  the  riot- 
ers in  Wall  Street,  where  stiff  blows  were  exchanged  with 
cane  and  club  and  the  non-importers  finally  dispersed. 

By  Monday  evening,  July  9.  the  canvass  was  completed ; 
and  the  vote  resulted  in  a  victory  for  the  merchants.  A 
protest  signed  by  many  inhabitants  later  declared  that  "  only 
^4  Persons  in  this  populous  City,  including  all  Ranks  and 
both  Sexes,"  signed  for  importation,  notwithstanding  "  the 
Co-operation  of  Interest,  Necessity  and  Influence."  ^  It 
was  further  claimed  that  the  great  number  of  those  entitled 
to  vo|:e  had  abstained  because  they  considered  the  proceeding 
irregular.^     '^Nevertheless;  the  merchants  accepted  the  ppll  as 

^  N.  Y.  Journ.,  July  26,  Aug.  2,  1770. 

*  Ibid.,  July  12,  1770.  Another  method  emplo3'ed  to  discredit  the 
poll  is  illustrated  by  the  recantation  of  Charles  Prosser  for  signing 
in  favor  of  importation  when  "  too  much  in  Liquor  to  be  trusted  with 
the  common  Rights  of  Mankind."     Conn.  Cour.,  Aug.  20. 


'y 


i 

V^'"^/ 


cT^ 


NON-IMPORTATION        ^-    Xf  ^^    227 

conclusive;  and  within  two  days  a  vessel  departed  for  Eng- 

land  with  orders  foFaT general  inipor'tatron~ot''goods,  exceot      i      y^   \-- 

tea  or  any  other  dutied  articles7      '^*''^'^'^T>t'^J~'l''-   't)  "^Z     ^ ' 

The  late  Committee  of  Merchants  of  New  York  made  all  *' 
haste  to  inform  their  brethren  in  Philadelphia  and  Boston 
of  the  new  developments.  When  a  copy  of  the  letter 
reached  Princeton,  James  Madison  and  his  fellow-students, 
garbed  in  black  gowns,  solemnly  witnessed  the  burning  of 
the  letter  by  a  hangman,  while  the  college  bell  tolled  funereal 
peals.^  This  was  an  augury  of  the  reception  that  the  letter 
was  to  receive  elsewhere. ,  At  Philadelphia,  a  great  meeting 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  and  county  adopted  numerous 
resolutions,  condemning  the  action  of  New  York  as  "  a  sor- 
did and  wanton  Defection  from  the  common  Cause  "  and 
declaring  a  boycott  against  that  city  except  for  five  neces- 
sary articles.^  At  Boston,  a  meeting  of  the  trade  at  Fan- 
euil  Hall  voted  unanimously  that  the  New  York  letter,  "  in 
just  indignation,  abhorrence  and  detestation,  be  forthwith 
torn  into  pieces  and  thrown  to  the  winds  as  unworthy  of 
the  least  notice;"  which  was  accordingly  done.*  The  New 
York  Committee  received  a  scathing  letter  from  the  mer- 
chants of  Albany,  remarking  on  their  "  unaccountable  Dup- 
licity "  and  quoting  cruelly  from  their  recent  letter  of^ cen- 
sure on  Albany  for  wavering  in  their  non-importation.^' 

^  iV.  Y.  Journ.,  July  12,  1770;  iV.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  220-221. 
On  Nov.  26,  Isaac  Low  advertised  that,  although  he  had  lately  been 
"distinguished  as  Chairman  of  a  certain  Committee,"  he  had  freshly 
imported  goods  in  stock.    N.  Y.  Gaa.  &  Merc,  Nov.  26. 

'A^  Y.  Journ.,  July  19,  1770;  Madison,  Writings  (Hunt),  vol.  i, 
pp.  6-7. 

'Meeting  of  July  14;  Pa.  Chron.,  July  16,  1770;  also  Pa.  Gaz.,  July 
19.    The  excepted  articles  were :  alkaline  salt,  skins,  furs,  flax  and  hemp. 

*■  Meeting  of  July  24;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  July  30,  1770;  also  A^.  Y.  Journ., 
Aug.  2,  9.  A  New  York  sloop  with  a  cargo  of  pork  was  turned  away 
from  Marblehead  by  the  Committee  of  Merchants  there.  Essex  Gaz., 
Aug.   14. 

*  N.   Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  23,    1770.     A  town  meeting  at  Huntington  in 


228  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

New  Jersey  was  aflame  with  indignation.  "  Shall  we  be 
humbug'd  out  of  our  Liberty  and  enslaved  only  by  a  Sett 
of  Traders?"  wrote  the  committee  of  Somerset  County/ 
Formal  resolutions  of  censure  and  boycott  were  adopted  by 
mass  meetings  in  Woodbridge  and  New  Brunswick  and  in 
the  counties  of  Essex,  Sussex  and  Burlington.'  A  New 
Yorker,  daring  to  hawk  fruit  at  Woodbridge,  was  "  gen- 
teelly ducked  to  cool  his  courage."  ^  The  inhabitants  of 
Sussex  County,  in  the  extreme  northwestern  corner  of  the 
province,  resolved  that,  although  they  had  hitherto  patron- 
ized New  York  markets  '"'  by  a  long  and  tedious  land- 
carriage,"  they  would  now  turn  their  trade  of  wheat  and 
iron  "  by  the  more  natural  and  easy  water-carriage  down 
the  River  Delaware  "  to  Trenton  and  Philadelphia.* 

The  people  of  Connecticut  were  equally  incensed.  The 
New  Haven  merchants  and  other  inhabitants  resolved  to  buy 
no  British  imports  from  New  York  and,  when  a  general 
importation  occurred,  to  exert  their  influence  either  to  di- 
vert the  trade  of  Connecticut  to  Boston  or  Philadelphia  or 
to  give  preference  to  local  merchants.^  Before  ven,'  many 
towns  had  followed  this  example,  a  public  meeting  at  Hart- 
ford started  a  movement  for  a  general  meeting  of  "  the 
mercantile  and  landed  interest  of  the  several  towns "  at 

the  eastern  part  of  Long  Island  denounced  the  "  mercenary  and  per- 
fidious Conduct "  of  New  York  and  resolved  to  maintain  the  non- 
importation inviolate.    Ibid.,  Aug.  30. 

^  N.  Y.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Sept.  24,  1770;  a^.so  J  .V.  /.  Arch.,  vol. 
xxvii,  pp.  253-254. 

^  N.  Y.  Journ.,  July  26,  Aug.  9,  Sept.  27,  Oct.ir,  1770;  also  i  N.  J. 
Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  206-207,  215-217,  218-219,  252-253,  260-262. 

^  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  9,  1770;  also  /  A'.  /.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  p.  220. 

*'N.  Y.  Gas.  &■  Post-Boy,  Sept.  24,  1770;  also  r  N.  J.  Arch.,  voL 
xxvii,  pp.  252-253. 

*  Meeting  of  July  26;  Conn.  Journ.,  Aug.  3,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTATION 


229 


New  Haven  on  September  13  to  adopt  uniform  measures 
in  dealing  with  New  York/  At  this  meeting,  attended  by 
delegates  from  a  great  majority  of  the  towns,  resolutions 
were  passed  to  sever  all  intercourse  with  New  York  so  far 
as  the  purchase  of  British  imports  was  concerned."  From 
the  plantation  provinces,  also,  came  expressions  of  in- 
dignation.^ 

<icThe  patriotic  indignation  of  the  other  provinces  at  the 
detection  of  New  York  was  splendid  to  behold.  ButUhe 
merchants  throughout  the  continent  realized 'in  their  hearts 
that  the  prostration  of  the  stalwart  pillar  ol'New  York 
would  cause  the  whole  great  edifice  to  topple^>The  dry- 
goods  importers  at  Philadelphia  were  stirred  to  re-open  the 
agitation  there.  Some  frankly  placed  their  demand  for 
alteration  on  the  ground  that  a  non-importation  of  tea  would 
accomplish  every  desirable  object,  and  that  the  defection  of 
New  York  precluded  any  possibility  of  distressing  British 
merchants  at  the  same  time  that  it  made  Pennsylvania 
traders  a  prey  to  the  merchants  of  that  city.*     Others  re- 

^  New  London  Gas.,  Aug.  17,  1770;  also  Mass.  Spy,  Aug.  21. 

^  Conn.  Cour.,  Sept.  17,  1770;  also  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Sept.  20. 

'  Considerably  less  notice  was  attracted  in  the  plantation  provinces 
than  in  the  commercial  provinces.  The  inhabitants  of  Talbot  County 
in  Maryland  resolved  to  cut  ofif  all  trade  relations  with  the  province 
of  New  York.  Pa.  Gaz.,  Aug.  22,,  1770.  A  general  meeting  of  mer- 
chants and  inhabitants  of  Wilmington  and  Brunswick  in  North  Caro- 
lina took  occasion  to  renew  their  agreement  "  with  great  spirit  and 
unanimity."  Mass.  Spy,  Sept.  [Dec]  3,  1770.  At  Charleston,  South 
Carolina  the  keenest  interest  was  displayed.  A  general  meeting  of 
August  22  unanimously  voted  that  the  "  scandalous  Revolt  from  the 
common  Cause  of  Freedom  "  should  be  punished  by  an  absolute  boy- 
cott; and  in  the  subsequent  months,  New  York  skippers  were  actually 
forbidden  trading  rights  in  the  port.  S.  C.  Gas.,  Aug.  20,  23,  Sept.  6, 
27,  Nov.  22,  1770. 

*"  Philo- Veritas "  in  Pa.  Gaz.,  Aug.  2,  1770;  "  Philadelphian "  in, 
ihid.,  Aug.  16;  Collins,  Letter-Book  1761-1773,  Nov.  24. 


230 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


vived  the  old  complaint  that  the  persons  most  violent  in 
favor  of  the  existing  agreement  were  in  general  "  Men 
little  or  not  at  all  interested  in  the  [drygoods]  Trade  "  but 
who  were  cheerfully  paying  duties  on  molasses,  sugar  and 
wine  in  the  course  of  their  trade  with  the  West  Indies  and 
the  Wine  Islands/ 

To  these  arguments  came  the  answer  of  "  Juris  Prudens  " 
in  exalted  strain — that  if  the  wine  and  molasses  merchants 
were  little  affected,  the  glory  of  the  drygoods  merchants  was 
all  the  greater;  and  he  recalled  that  "the  Weight  of  the 
Stamp  Act  fell  upon  the  Lawyers,  they  generously  bore  it 
and  desired  not  Partners  in  Distress."  ^  Rather  more 
pointed  was  the  reminder  given  by  "Amor  Patriae  "  that 
the  merchants  had  deliberately  chosen  to  make  the  Towns- 
hend  duties  the  sole  object  of  repeal,  even  to  the  point  of 
rejecting  a  proposition  from  Boston  for  including  the  wine 
and  molasses  duties  as  objects;  that  therefore  reflections 
upon  these  latter  merchants  had  no  bearing  upon  the  matter 
under  discussion. ir  Other  writers  emphasized  that  the  tea 
act  was,  in  principle,  just  as  much  a  violation  of  American 
rights  as  the  duties  that  had  been  repealed,  and  that  the 
material  condition  of  the  poor  in  Pennsylvania  was  better 
than  it  had  been  in  years. *^^ 

Matters  came  to  a  head  when  the  seven  ex-members  of 
the  Committee  of  Merchants  joined  with  seven  other  mer- 
cantile firms,  on  September  12,  1770.  to  request  the  com- 
mittee to  canvass  the  sentiments  of  the  subscribers  of  the 
agreement  in  a  house-to-house  poll.     The  committee,  headed 

^  "  Philo-Veritas "    in   Pa.    Gaz.,   July    19.    1770;    "  Talionis "    in   Pa. 
Chron.,  Aug.  8. 
'Pa.  Gas.,  Aug.  2,  1770. 

*  Ibid.,  July  26,  1770. 

*  "  True  Philadelphian  "  and  "  Pennsylvanian  "  in  ibid.,  Aug.  23,  1770. 


NON-IMPORTA  TION 


231 


by  Charles  Thomson  and  Wilham  Fisher,  repHed  that  the 
agreement  itself  provided  the  only  method  of  its  amend- 
ment,— through  a  general  meeting  of  subscribers  after  three 
days'  notice/  Without  consulting  the  committee  further, 
the  fourteen  sent  notices  around  to  the  subscribers  to  meet 
at  Davenport's  Tavern  on  Thursday,  September  20."  Only 
one  hundred  and  thirty-five  persons  attended,  and  the  im- 
porters had,  through  assiduous  effort,  succeeded  in  collect- 
ing a  majority  favorable  to  their  design.  The  committee 
appeared,  made  a  fervent  appeal  to  the  meeting  to  be  loyal 
to  the  liberties  of  America,  and  presented  a  list  of  three 
carefully  worded  questions  to  be  voted  on,  with  the  purpose 
of  preventing  any  alteration  except  in  concert  with  the  other 
provinces  and  of  patterning  the  alteration,  should  any  be 
made,  on  the  Maryland  or  Virginia  association.  The  im- 
porters submitted  a  counter-list  of  questions,  which  put 
squarely  before  the  gathering  the  expediency  of  restricting 
non-importation  to  tea  and  other  dutied  articles,  as  the  New 
Yorkers  had  done.  The  meeting  voted  to  consider  the  last 
list  of  questions  first  and  passed  them  in  the  affirmative. 
A  trial  vote  on  one  of  the  committee's  questions  showed 
an  adverse  vote  of  89  to  45.  The  committee  then  contended 
that  the  inhabitants  in  general  should  have  a  vote  in  the 
matter  and  that,  in  any  case,  the  subscribers  not  present 
should  be  consulted.  But  they  could  make  no  headway 
against  the  majority;  and  Charles  Thomson,  speaking  for 
the  eleven  members  of  the  committee,  declared  that  they 
deemed  that  the  agreement  had  been  broken  and  announced 
their  resignation. 
C^The  people  of  Philadelphia  did  not  accept  the  decision 

^  Pa.  Gaz.,  Sept.  20,  1770. 

*For  accounts  of  this  meeting,  vide  ibid.,  Sept.  27,  Oct.  11,  1770;  and 
especially  the  circular  letter  of  the  "  late  Committee "  in  Pa.  Chron., 
Oct.  I. 


232 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


without  loud  protest.  A  grand  jury,  of  which  John  Gibson, 
one  of  the  resigned  committeemen,  was  foreman,  declared 
that  they  would  unite  with  their  fellow-citizens  to  discoun- 
tenance the  use  of  British  goods  until  the  parliamentary 
claim  to  colonial  taxation  was  relinquished,  the  tea  duty 
repealed,  the  jurisdiction  and  power  of  the  vice-admiralty 
courts  restricted,  the  Customs  Board  dissolved,  and  the 
standing  army  removed  or  placed  under  direction  of  the 
civil  authority/  A  mass  meeting  of  inhabitants  voted,  with 
only  one  dissenting  voice,  to  adopt  the  resolutions  which 
the  committee  had  submitted  in  vain  to  the  merchants'  meet- 
ing; and  a  formal  request  was  made  that  the  merchants 
should  re-consider  their  action."  Meantime,  the  merchants 
had  chosen  a  new  committee  to  supervise  enforcement  of 
the  altered  agreement;  and  on  Saturday,  the  twenty-ninth, 
the  London  Packet  sailed  with  the  orders  of  the  merchants 
for  British  merchandise.^ 

<!!^t  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  the  merchants  at  Bos- 
ton should  continue  their  non-importation  when  all  about 
them  yielded  to  the  stern  call  of  necessity.^  "  Some  who 
have  been  leaders  would  have  been  glad  to  hold  out  longer," 
wrote  Dr.  Andrew  Eliot,  "  but  persons  in  trade  were  weary, 
and,  as  interest  is  generally  their  god,  began  to  be  furious."  * 
After  all,/their  purpose  of  bringing  pressure  to  bear  upon 
British  merchants  and  manufacturers  was  already  defeated 
by  the  defection  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia.\The  first 
indication  of  weakening  came  when  the  merchants,  not- 
withstanding their  intense  indignation,  failed  to  pass  reso- 
lutions of  boycott  when  New  York  departed  the  agreement.^ 

^September  24;  Pa.  Gas.,  Sept.  27,  1770. 

'  September  27;  ibid.,  Oct.  4,  1770. 

^  Pa.  Chron.,  Sept.  24,  1770;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Oct.  11. 

*  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  p.  458. 

*  Vide    sarcastic    comment   in    Nezvport   Merc,    Aug.   6,    1770;    also 


NON-IMPORTATION 


233 


On  September  11,  a  few  days  before  the  final  steps  to  dis- 
solve the  Philadelphia  agreement  had  been  taken,  a  great 
meeting  of  the  Boston  trade  was  held,  at  which  it  was  esti- 
mated that  not  less  than  one  thousand  were  present,  includ- 
ing "  a  very  great  Number  of  the  principal  and  most  wealthy 
Merchants,  as  well  as  the  most  respectable  Tradesmen  of 
the  Town."  The  assemblage  voted  to  propose  to  Phila- 
delphia an  interprovincial  congress  of  merchants  to  plan 
ways  and  means  of  strengthening  the  union  of  the  prov- 
inces/ The  letter  reached  Philadelphia  after  the  committee 
of  that  city  had  become  non-existent.  The  news  of  the 
desertion  of  Philadelphia  brought  the  Boston  merchants  to 
a  decision  after  a  few  weeks  of  irresolution;  on  October  12, 
they  met  at  the  British  Coffee  House  and  unanimously  voted 
to  open  the  importation  of  all  British  goods,  except  tea  and 
such  other  articles  as  were  or  might  be  subject  to  revenue 
duties.^  A  week  later,  the  goods  which  had  been  placed  in 
stOTC  were  delivered  up  to  their  owners.^  v 

r^^he  downfall  of  non-importation  in  the  commercial  prov-    p 
inces  meant  that  the  associations  to  the  southward  must  soon  J 
crumble  alscA,  The  merchants  of  Baltimore  lost  little  tinie'^ 
in  sending  forth  a  call  for  a  meeting  of  the  General  Com- 
mittee of  Maryland  at  Annapolis  when  they  learned  that  the 
Philadelphia    merchants    had    forsaken    their    agreement. 
They  resolved,  furthermore,  that  if  the  provincial  meeting 

Mass.  Spy,  Aug.  14.  The  Mass.  Spy  on  November  5  quoted  from  a 
London  paper  that  "  at  a  late  Meeting  of  the  American  Merchants, 
it  was  agreed  to  give  xmlimited  Credit  to  such  of  the  Colonies  as 
should  follow  the  Example  of  New  York,  by  a  general  Importation." 
Such  rumors,  whether  true  or  not,  served  no  doubt  to  increase  the 
sentiment  for  renewing  importation. 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Sept.  17,  1770 ;  Pa.  Chron.,  Oct.  i. 

^  Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  13,  1770;  also  Mass  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Oct  15. 

^Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  20,  1770. 


234 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


should  not  be  held,  they  would  consider  the  association  dis- 
solved and  open  the  importation  of  all  goods  save  tea  and 
other  dutied  articles/  A  provincial  meeting  was  duly  held 
on  October  25,  but  it  proved  a  rather  heterogeneous  gather- 
ing, consisting  of  a  majority  of  the  Assembly,  several 
Annapolis  merchants,  some  members  of  the  Council,  a  num- 
ber of  planters,  and  of  properly  chosen  deputations  from 
only  three  counties.  Jonathan  Hudson,  representing  the 
Baltimore  merchants,  defiantly  informed  the  meeting  that  his 
constituents  were  determined  to  depart  the  association  not- 
withstanding any  resolutions  they  might  adopt,  and  that  he 
had  been  instructed  to  agree  to  no  terms  short  of  a  dis- 
solution of  the  association.  The  meeting  answered  by 
voting  that  the  association  should  be  strictly  adhered  to  and 
that  all  trade  should  be  stopped  with  the  Baltimore  mer- 
chants or  any  other  violators."  The  Annapolis  incident 
proved  to  be  only  a  piece  of  theatricalism  so  far  as  the  mer- 
chants of  the  province  were  concerned.  "A  Merchant  of 
Maryland  "  ridiculed  the  gathering  as  "  a  fortuitous  Col- 
lection, not  of  Merchants,  but  of  Counsellors,  Representa- 
tives, Lawyers,  and  others,  who  had  been  convened  at 
Annapolis  on  other  public  Business;"  and  he  remarked 
"  how  absurd,  not  to  say  indecent,  it  is  for  ]Men  whose  Occu- 
pations and  Employments  lie  altogether  in  a  different  \\^alk, 
to  attempt  giving  Law  to  the  mercantile  Part  of  the  Com- 
munity." ^  The  subsequent  months  showed  that  he  spoke 
with  entire  truthfulness  when  he  said  that  the  merchants  did 
not  intend  to  pay  "  the  least  Regard  to  those  flaming  and 
ridiculous  Resolutions  which  were  lately  flashed  off."  but 
that  they  would  confine  their  non-importation  only  to  tea 
and  other  dutied  articles. 

^  October  5,  Md.  Gas.,  Oct.  11,  1770;  also  Pa.  Gas.,  Oct.  18. 
^  Md.  Gas.,  Nov.  i.  1770;  also  Pa.  Gas.,  Nov.  8. 
'  Ibid.,  Dec.   13,   1770. 


NON-IMPORTA  TION 


235 


In  the  latter  part  of  October  the  South  Carolina  Gen- 
eral Committee  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the  northern 
provinces  with  the  purpose  of  learning  whether  the  body  of 
the  people  acquiesced  in  the  decision  of  the  mercantile  por- 
tion in  altering  the  non-importation/  While  the  liberal 
terms  of  the  South  Carolina  Association  and  its  compara- 
tively recent  adoption  had  prevented  the  growth  of  the  in- 
tense dissatisfaction  which  had  disrupted  the  northern 
agreements,  yet  the  defection  of  the  commercial  provinces, 
joined  with  a  widespread  belief  that  the  declining  price  of 
rice  was  due  to  the  non-importation,^  resulted  in  seriously 
weakening  the  sentiment  in  South  Carolina.  On  November 
20,  the  General  Committee  announced  that  a  meeting  of  the 
subscribers  of  the  association  would  be  held  on  December 
13  to  decide  as  to  their  future  course.^  The  merchant, 
Henry  Laurens,  presided  at  the  meeting.  The  non-import- 
ing faction  were  led  by  Thomas  Lynch,  planter  and  radical, 
who  came  fifty  miles  for  the  purpose  and  ''  exerted  all  his 
eloquence  &  even  the  trope  of  rhetorical  tears  for  the  ex- 
piring liberty  of  his  dear  country  which  the  merchants  would 
sell  like  any  other  merchandize."  *  It  was  quickly  evident 
that  the  importers  controlled  a  majority;  a  motion  to  delay 
action  until  the  General  Assembly  met,  and  an  effort  to  con- 
tinue the  association  with  an  open  importation  from  Holland, 
met  with  defeat.     The  assemblage  thereupon  voted  to  limit 

*  5".  C.  Gaz.,  Nov.  i,  1770;  also  Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  3,  1771. 

'"A  Planter"  in  S.  C.  Gas.,  Dec.  27,  1770.  Current  newspapers 
show  that  rice  averaged  70s.  per  hundredweight  in  1768  (before  the 
non-importation)  ;  60s.  during  1769;  4Ss.  during  1770. 

*  S.  C.  Gas.,  Nov.  22,  1770.  For  an  account  of  the  meeting,  vide  ibid., 
Dec.  13. 

*  Bull  to  Hillsborough,  quoted  in  McCrady,  5".  C.  under  Royal 
Govt.,  pp.  682-683. 


236  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

non-importation   and  non-consumption   to  tea   and   other 
articles  subject  to  duty/ 

<In  Virginia,  the  non-importation  spirit,  which  had  been 
feeble  throughout,  gradually  subsided.  yA  meeting  of  as- 
sociators  was  called  for  December  14,  1770,  at  Williams- 
burg; but  so  few  attended  that  they  did  nothing  but  adjourn 
until  the  following  summer,"  In  February  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son sent  an  order  for  goods  to  an  English  merchant  with 
instructions  to  send  immediately  only  such  goods  as  were 
admissible  by  the  association;  by  June  he  felt  so  confident 
that  the  approaching  meeting  would  repeal  the  association,. 
except  for  dutied  articles,  that  he  took  time  by  the  forelock 
and  ordered  the  shoes  and  other  debarred  articles  to  be 
shipped  at  once.^  Early  in  July  the  Virginia  meeting  took 
the  action  that  Jefferson  had  anticipated.^  In  North  Caro- 
lina, no  record  apparently  remains  of  the  passing  of  the 
non-importation. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  second  non-importation 

movement,  it  would  appear  desirable  to  determine  the  effects 

of  the  colonial  plan  of  commercial  coercion  on  Great  Britain. 

Statistics  of  trade  show  that  the  English  merchants  and 

manufacturers   dependent  upon  American  commerce  suf- 

^  A  committee  was  appointed  to  send  a  protest  in  behalf  of  South 
Carolina  against  the  conduct  of  the  nortliern  provinces.  There  ap- 
peared to  be  a  strong  sentiment  in  favor  of  stopping  trade  with  those 
parts,  especially  since  it  was  held  that  that  commerce  drained  specie 
from  South  Carolina  "  mostly  for  mere  Trash."  But  this  action  was 
not  taken,  apparently  because  "  the  defection  not  having  been  among 
the  Landholders,  Farmers  and  Mechanicks  ...  it  would  be  unjust  ta 
retaliate  upon  them,  for  the  Injuries  received  from  some  of  the  Mer- 
chants in  those  Colonies."    S.  C.  Gaz.,  Dec.  27,  1770. 

^Brit.  Papers  ("  Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  ii,  p.  70. 

^  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  i,  pp.  387-389,  394-395- 

*  Washington,  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  pp.  334-338. 


NON-IMPOR  TA  TION 


237 


fered  a  great  loss  of  tradeA  Friends  of  parliamentary  taxa- 
tion in  England  were  quick  to  claim  that  the  colonies  were 
being  partially  supplied  by  means  of  a  clandestine  trade  by 
way  of  Quebec  and  Halifax;  but  there  was  little  basis  for 
this  charge  in  fact."  ,  Yet,^  notwithstanding  the  decline  of 
American  trade,  very  little  actual  distress  was  experienced 
in  England  during  the  period  of  the  non-importation.'  This 
was  the  result  of  several  fortuitous  circumstances  uncon- 
nected with  the  American  situation.  'Crops  in  England 
were  better  than  they  had  been  in  years,  and  the  material 
condition  of  the  workingmen  was  much  improved  by  the 
general  reduction  of  the  price  of  provisions.^  Further  than 
this,  the  Russo-Turkish  war,  which  broke  out  in  1768, 
and  the  increased  demand  for  woolens  in  Germany,  as  well 
as  other  unusual  circumstances,  served  to  neutralize  the  ef- 
fects which  the  American  non-importation  agreements 
would  otherwise  have  produced.^  ^ 

"  Not  a  manufacturing  village  in  this  kingdom  complains 

*  Exports  to  the  thirteen  colonies  fell  from  £2,157,218  in  1768  to 
£1,336,122  in  1769;  imports  from  the  colonies,  from  £1,251,454  to 
£1,060,206.  Vide  Alacpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  under  the  ap- 
propriate dates,  for  these  and  the  other  figures  cited  hereafter. 

^  Pa.  Gac,  June  21,  Sept.  6,  1770;  A^.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  30,  Sept.  6. 
There  was  probably  some  evasion  of  non-importation  by  w^ay  of  Canada, 
for  the  purpose,  it  would  appear,  of  providing  Albany  traders  with 
merchandise  for  the  Indian  trade.  EngHsh  importations  at  Quebec 
increased  from  £110,598  in  1768  to  £174,435  in  1769;  at  Newfoundland, 
from  £46,761  to  £64,080;  at  Nova  Scotia,  there  was  a  small  decrease. 
A  suspicious  increase  of  imports  occurred  at  Jamaica,  from  £473,146  in 
1768  to  £570,468  in  the  following  year;  but  contemporary  writers  failed 
to  prefer  any  charges  on  this  score. 

^  Bos.  Chron.,  Nov.  16,  1769;  also  A''.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Nov.  27. 

*  This  was  repeatedly  averred.  E.  g.,  vide  5  M.  H.  S.  Colts.,  vol.  ix, 
pp.  384-385;  Pa.  Gas.,  Jan.  4,  Sept.  6,  1770;  Bos.  Chron.,  June  11; 
N.  Y.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  May  21;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Sept.  27;  Mass.  Spy, 
Sept.  15;  Adams,  John,  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  352;  A^  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc, 
Nov.  27,  1769. 


238  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

of  a  slack  trade,"  declared  a  London  newspaper  of  Novem- 
ber 2'/,  1768,  "  nay,  what  is  more,  when  some  of  them  were 
applied  to,  at  the  close  of  last  session  to  sign  a  petition 
setting  forth  their  distresses  arising  from  the  suspension 
of  the  American  orders,  they  said  that  they  were  then  so 
fully  employed  that  they  could  not,  with  any  colour  of  truth, 
sign  such  a  petition."  ^  An  American  travelling  in  England 
wrote  back  to  Philadelphia  friends  in  May,  1 770,  that  goods 
were  scarce  and  prices  advanced  at  Birmingham,  Halifax 
and  Leeds,  and  only  at  Sheffield  were  prices  lower  than 
formerly.-  Even  the  merchant.  Barlow  Trecothick,  while 
arguing  before  the  House  of  Commons  for  a  total  repeal 
of  the  Townshend  duties  in  April,  1770,  admitted  that  "  at 
present  all  our  manufacturers  were  employed  and  all  our 
manufactures  vended,"  pointing  out,  however,  that  the 
woolens  trade  with  Germany  and  northern  Europe  was  only 
transitory,  "  a  passing  cloud."  ^ 

"  The  merchants  here,"  wrote  Dr.  Franklin  from  London 
in  March,  1770,  "  were  at  length  prevailed  on  to  present  a 
petition,  but  they  moved  slowly,  and  some  of  them,  I 
thought,  reluctantly."  *  Some  of  the  merchants  in  Ameri- 
can trade  were  buoyed  up  by  the  rumors  from  Boston  that 
the  agreements  were  collapsing ;  ^  others  declared  impatiently 
that  non-importation  "  is  now  a  stale  device  and  will  not 
do  a  second  time;"  ^  still  others  had  gotten  their  share  of 

^  AT.  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  22,  1770. 

*Pa.  Car.,  Aug.  16,  1770;  also  A^.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  30. 

^  Bos.  Chron.,  June  11,  1770;  5  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  430-431. 
In  face  of  this  universally  accepted  evidence,  however,  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  statistics  in  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce  do  not 
disclose  any  abnormal  increase  in  English  exportations  to  Russia, 
Holland  or  Germany. 

*  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  v,  p.  252. 

^  Bos.  Chron.,  Jan.  8,  1770;  also  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Jan.  18. 

®  A^.  Y.  Gas.  &  Merc,  Sept.  3,  1770. 


NON-IMP  OR  TA  TION  239 

the  new  trade  with  northern  Europe.  At  the  instigation 
of  the  colonial  agents,  the  merchants  in  American  trade  at 
Bristol  and  London  finally  petitioned  Parliament  in  Janu- 
ary and  February,  1770,  for  a  total  repeal  of  the  Towns- 
hend  duties/  The  manufacturing  towns  absolutely  refused 
to  move;  and  thus  the  memorials  lacked  the  solid  business 
support  which  had  been  given  to  the  demand  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act.  The  petition  of  the  London  merchants 
furnished  merely  the  occasion,  not  the  cause,  for  Lord 
North's  motion  to  repeal  all  the  Townshend  duties  save 
the  tea  tax.  The  ministry  had  announced  its  intention  as 
early  as  1769  so  to  proceed;  and  Lord  North's  motion  was 
based  on  the  claim  that  the  Townshend  law,  the  product  of 
a  former  ministry,  was  "  preposterous  "  in  so  far  as  it  im- 
posed taxes  on  British  manufactures.^  He  did  not  deny 
that  "  dangerous  combinations  "  had  been  formed  beyond 
the  Atlantic  and  that  the  British  merchants  with  American 
connections  were  discontented;  but  it  was  clear  that  the 
former  consideration  made  him  reluctant  to  make  any  con- 
cessions at  all,  while  the  force  of  the  latter  was  minimized  by 
the  practical  certainty  that  the  non-nnportation  agreements 
could  not  continue  much  longer.  <vln  conclusion,  then/  it 
would  appear  that  the  effects  of  American  trade  coercion 
were  off-set  by  a  fortuitous  expansion  of  British  commerce; 
and  that  the  partial  repeal  was  produced  by  a  desire  to 
correct  a  law,  passed  by  a  former  ministry  and  based  upon 
a  principle  injurious  to  British  commercial  interestsl^^ 

^Va.  Mag.,  vol.  xii,  p.  164;  Pa.  Gaz.,  Apr.  26,  1770. 
*  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  853-855 ;  5  .1/.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol. 
ix,  pp.  421-422. 


^' 


i^ 


^ 


V 


CHAPTER  VI 
Colonial  Prosperity  and  a  New  Peril  (i 770-1 773) 


i 


'he  three  years  that  followed  the  breakdown  of  the 
great  mercantile  combination  were,  for  the  most  part,  years 
of  material  prosperity  and  political  calm.  In  the  earlier 
years  the  merchants  of  the  commercial  provinces  had  been 
the  backbone  of  the  demand  for  a  restricted  parliamentary 
control;  but  in  the  period  following  the  autumn  of  1770 
|"the  alliance  of  the  commercial  interests  and  the  radicals 
Vwas  broken.  The  merchants  were  dominated  by  a  desire  to 
/  prevent  any  further  strengthening  of  non-mercantile  power 
in  provincial  politics  and  by  a  substantial  satisfaction  in  the 
concessions  that  Parliament  had  made.  The  influence  of 
the  moderates  generally  was  thrown  in  favor  of  "  letting 
well  enough  alone;  "  and  the  return  of  better  times  seemed 
an  irrefutable  argument  in  favor  of  this  position.  Happy  it 
would  have  been  for  the  merchant  class  and  for  the  stability 
of  the  British  empire  if  the  merchants  had  not  been  induced 
to  depart  from  tHs  position  during  a  few  critical  weeks  in 

the  fall  of  1773*5  X  /" 

Colden  at  New  York  observed  \"A11  Men  of  property  are 
so  sensible  of  their  danger,  from  Riots  and  tumults,  that 
they  will  not  rashly  be  induced  to  enter  into  combinations, 
which  may  promote  disorder  for  the  future,  but  will  en-^ 
deavour  to  promote  due  subordination  to  legal  authority."  ^ 
Even  Thomas  Cushing,  who  as  speaker  of  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives  had  been  a  leading  spokesman  for 

^  A'.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  p.  217. 
240 


y 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  241 

radical  colonial  demands  and  who  as  a  merchant  continued 
somewhat  restive  under  the  existing  trade  regulations,  pre- 
ferred that  "  high  points  about  the  supreme  authority  of 
Parliament  "  should  "  fall  asleep  "'  lest  there  be  "  great 
danger  of  bringing  on  a  rupture  fatal  to  both  countries."  ^ 
John  Adams  wrote  in  his  diary  at  this  time  that  he  had 
learned  wisdom  from  his  experience  in  fighting  in  behalf 
of  the  people's  rights :  "  I  shall  certainly  become  more  re- 
tired and  cautious.  I  shall  certainly  mind  my  own  farm 
and  my  own  business."  ^  As  "  Chronus  "  expressed  it, 
the  public  had  become  impatient  with  the  "  group  of  gloomy 
mortals  "  who  prated  unceasingly  of  tyranny.  He  noted^- 
that  justice  was  duly  administered  by  "  learned  and  judicious 
men  who  have  estates  and  property  of  their  own  and  who 
are  therefore  likely  to  be  as  tenacious  of  the  public  rights 
and  liberties  as  any  other  person  can  be;  "  that  shops  were 
filled  with  merchandise,  business  thriving;  that  ships  were 
plying  a  brisk  trade  abroad  and  farmers  were  busily  cultivat- 
ing their  own  lands.  Were  such  mpn  slaves  groaning  from 
lack  of  liberty?  he  queried;  and-'Tig^^ reminded  his  readers 
of  the  evils  resulting  in  the  past  from  following  "  officious 
Patriots,"  men  who  "  have  nothing  to  lose,  but  when  public 
rule  and  order  are  broken  in  upon  and  al|  things  are  thrown 
into  confusion,  they  may  be  gainers."  '"^ 
^After  six  years  of  almost  continuous  agitation  and  bad 
business  conditions,  the  merchants  turned,  with  a  sense  of 
profound  relief,  to  the  pleasant  task  of  wooing  the  profits 
of  commerce.  Conditions  generally  were  favorable  to  the 
pursuit  of  this  beguiling  occupation.  The  non-importation 
had  caused  a  net  balance  of  trade  in  favor  of  the  com- 

*  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  p.  360. 

*  Works  (Adams,  C.  F.),  vol.  ii,  p.  260. 

*  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  6,  1772. 


242 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


mercial  provinces;  and  for  the  first  time  in  memory,  gold 
was  imported  from  England  in  the  course  of  commerce^^^ 
The  great  demand  for  com  in  France,  Spain  and  Italy, 
caused  by  devastating  floods,  had  enabled  the  American 
merchants  to  pay  off  their  standing  debts  in  England ;  and, 
^  due  to  the  non-importation,  they  had  ordered  their  balance 
to  be  transmitted  to  them  in  bullion  instead  of  in  the  form 
of  merchandise/  It  was  with  great  elation  that  a  Phila- 
delphia newspaper  announced  that  the  brig  Dolphin  had 
brought  to  Philadelphia  £6000  sterling  in  specie  from  Lon- 
don, and  a  little  later,  that  two  vessels  had  arrived  with 
£10,000  more,  "  this  being  some  of  the  golden  fruits  of 
the  Non-Importation.  .  ."  ^  The  same  thing  went  on  at 
other  ports.  ^ 

With  so  much  inactive  capital  on  hand,  the  re-opening 
^of  trade  in  the  last  months  of  1770  caused  the  colonial 
merchants  to  invest  in  great  quantities  of  British  wares. 
English  houses  met  them  more  than  half  way  with  liberal 
extensions  of  credit  in  order  to  regain  the  American  market. 
In  such  centres  as  New  England  and  Pennsylvania,  British 
importations  increased  three-  to  fiv^old<24^ommerce  never 
was  in  a  more  flourishing  stated'  *J  In  fact,,  business  was 
experiencing  too  rapid  a  recovery^om  depression ;  the  mer- 
chants became  greatly  overstocked,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
next  year  or  so,  competition  at  times  caused  goods  to  sell 
lower  than  the  first  cost  and  charges.  ^\Meantime,  however, 

^  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Sept.  24,  1770;  Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  30;  London 
Citron.,  Nov.  8;  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvi,  p.  861. 

'Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  30,  Nov.  i,  1770. 

^  5".  C.  Gac,  Nov.  22,  lyji ;  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  viii,  p.  320. 

*  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  350. 

'Collins,  Letter-Book  1761-1773,  Dec.  6,  1771;  Feb.  28,  Oct.  8,  1772; 
Mch.  2Z,  Apr.  28,  Aug.  3,  1773 ;  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  p.  17s  ^ 
"A  Merchant"  in  Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  9,  1772. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


243 


the  merchants  felt  they  were  enjoying  a  deserved  feast  after 
a  long  and  trying  fast. 

The  newspaper  advertising  indicated  that*  colonial  agricul- 
tural products  and  certain  varieties  of  domestic  manufac- 
tures were  enjoying  a  wider  sale  than  ever  before.  The 
Bostonian  and  New  Yorker  could  expect  to  find  in  the  local 
shops  Pennsylvania  flour  and  iron,  "  Choice  Philadelphia 
Beer,"  potash  kettles  cast  at  Salisbury,  Conn.,  Rhode  Island 
cheese,  Virginia  tobacco,  and  Carolina  pitch,  indigo  and 
rice.  The  "first  volume  of  Blackstone  was  reprinted  at 
Boston  for  two  dollars  although  the  price  of  the  British, 
edition  waf  three  times  as  great.  Lynn  shoes  for  women,. 
New  England  cod-fish  hooks,  Milton  paper  and  Boston- 
made  sails  had  an  established  clientele.  Philadelphia  news- 
papers advertised  locally-made  watches,  bar  steel,  pot  and 
pearlashes.  Governor  Franklin  of  New  Jersey  transmitted 
to  the  home  government  the  report  that,  during  the  non- 
importation struggle,  a  new  slitting  mill  had  been  erected  in 
Morris  County,  so  contrived  as  to  be  an  appendage  to  a 
grist  mill  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  evade  the  parliamentary 
prohibition.^ 

The  general  satisfaction  of  the  merchants  was  not  dis- 
turbed by  the  vestiges  of  the  old  restrictive  and  reyenue 
measures  which  still  remained  on  the  statute  book.  <^ven 
complaints  against  the  absence  of  a  circulating  medium 
ceased,  until  the  resumption  of  commercial  relations  with 
Great  Britain  again  drained  off  the  gold  supply ;  and  in  May,, 
1773,  Parliament  took  steps  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of 
currency  stringency  that  had  been  potentially  present  since 
the  prohibition  of  legal  tender  in  1764.  \  This  act  provided 
that  paper,  issued  by  the  colonies  as  security  to  their  public 

^  I  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  p.  444. 


244 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


creditors,  might  be  made,  by  the  colonial  assemblies,  a4egal 


V 


tender  for  the  payment  of  provincial  duties  and  taxes. \/ 

The  conduct  of  the  merchants  and  their  customers  toward 
the  importation  and  use  of  duty-laden  tea  during  this  period 
throws  considerable  light  upon  their  philosophical  attitude 
toward  those  "  high  points  about  the  supremacy  of  Parlia- 
ment "  which,  according  to  Cushing,  should  best  "  fall 
asleep."v^  Outside  of  the  ports  of  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia, the  tea  duty  was  universally  acquiesced  in,  notwith- 
standing the  widespread  resolutions  of  boycott  that  had  been 
adopted  against  customed  articles  in  1 770.  No  efforts  what- 
soever were  made  to  enforce  the  non-importation  in  these 
provinces,  so  far  as  the  newspapers  recorded ;  ^  and  the 
popular  apathy  failed  to  provoke  criticism  or  protest.  Even 
the  arch-radical,  John  Adams,  could  confide  to  his  diary, 
on  February  14,  1771,  that  he  had  "  dined  at  Mr.  Hancock's 
with  the  members,  Warren,  Church,  Cooper,  &c.  and  Mr. 
Harrison,  and  spent  the  whole  afternoon,  and  drank  green 
tea,  from  Holland,  I  hope,  but  don't  know."  "' 

When  in  the  autumn  months  of  1773  public  sentiment 
underwent  an  abrupt  and  radical  change  for  reasons  that 
will  be  discussed  later,  further  light  was  thrown  on  the  state 
of  public  mind  that  had  existed  prior  to  that  time.  Thus, 
in  August,  1774,  Robert  Findlay  was  adjudged  by  the 
Charles  County,  Md.,  Committee  to  have  "  fully  and  satis- 
factorily exculpated  himself  of  any  intention  to  counteract 
the  resolutions  of  America  "  because  he  showed  that  his 

*  13  George  III,  c.  57.  Vide  also  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol. 
iii,  p.  538. 

^  The  single  recorded  instance  in  any  of  the  thirteen  provinces  was 
the  case  of  John  Turner,  a  New  York  shopkeeper,  who  was  detected  in 
the  act  of  seUing  some  dutied  tea  about  six  weeks  after  the  New  York 
agreement  had  been  adopted.     A'.  Y.  Can.  &  Merc,  Aug.  20,  1770. 

*  Works  (Adams,  C.  F.),  vol.  ii,  p.  255. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


245 


orders  for  dutied  tea  had  been  sent  in  the  fall  of  1773.^ 
Likewise  T.  C.  Williams  &  Company  of  Annapolis  issued  a 
statement  in  October,  1774,  with  reference  to  the  tea  con- 
signed to  them  in  the  Peggy  Stewart,  in  which  they  declared  : 

When  we  ordered  this  tea  [in  May,  1774],  we  did  nothing  more 
than  our  neighbours ;  for  it  is  well  known  that  most  merchants, 
both  here  and  in  Baltimore,  that  ordered  fall  goods,  ordered 
tea  as  usual ;  and  to  our  certain  knowledge,  in  the  months  of 
April,  May  and  June  last,  near  thirty  chests  were  imported  into 
this  city  by  different  merchants,  and  the  duties  paid  without 
the  least  opposition.  .  .  .  We  therefore  think  it  hard,  nay  cruel 
usage,  that  our  characters  should  be  thus  blasted  for  only  doing 
what  most  people  in  this  province  that  are  concerned  in  trade, 
have  likewise  done." 

<^t  Charleston,  S.  C,  the  importation  of  dutied  tea  had 
also  been  carried  on  during  the  years  1 771- 1773  with  ab- 
solutely no  attempt  at  concealment. ^/^i^  the  public  meeting, 
held  in  December,  1773,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  East  India 
Company's  ship,  it  was  strongly  argued  that  "  Tea  had  ever 
been  spontaneously  imported  and  the  Duty  paid;  that  every 
subject  had  an  equal  right  to  send  that  article  from  the 
Mother  Country  into  their  Province,  and  therefore  it  was 
unreasonable  to  exclude  the  Hon.  East  India  Company  from 
the  same  privilege."^--  Indeed,  while  the  people  were  still 
in  session,  some  dutied  teas  on  board  the  tea-ship,  not  owned 
by  the  East  India  Company,  were  landed  and  carted  past  the 
meeting-place  to  the  stores  of  private  merchants !  ^ 

^  Md.  Gas.,  Aug.  11,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  703-704. 

*  Md.  Gas.,  Oct.  27,  1774. 

*  S.  C.  Gas.,  Nov.  29,  Dec.  6,  20,  1773. 

*  A''.  Y.  Gasetteer,  Dec.  23,  1773. 

*  Drayton,  J.,  Memoirs  of  the  American  Revolution  (Charleston, 
1821),  vol.  i,  p.  98. 


246  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

This  contemporary  evidence  ^  is  abundantly  supported  by 
the  official  figures  of  the  British  government  on  the  tea 
importations  into  the  colonies.'  sAt  Boston,  a  total  of 
373,077  pounds  of  dutied  tea  was  imported  from  December 
I,  1770  to  Jianuary  5,  1773  without  articulate  protest  from 
the  radicalsA  "  Three  hundred  whole  and  fifty-five  half 
Chests  came  in  Vessels  belonging  to  Mr.  John  Hancock  the 
Patriot,"  stated  the  comptroller  of  customs  at  Boston  in  a 
letter  of  September  29,  1773,  to  John  Pownall,  under-secre- 
tary  of  state  in  the  colonial  department.*  In  the  other 
importing  provinces,  the  amount  of  dutied  tea  received  from 
December  i,  1770  to  January  5,  1773  was  less  in  quantity 
but  probably  about  equal  in  proportion  to  their  normal 
volume  of  trade.  At  Rhode  Island,  the  quantity  of  dutied 
tea  entered  was  20,833  pounds ;  at  Patuxent,  Md.,  33,304 
pounds;  at  the  several  Virginia  ports,  79,527  pounds;  at 
Charleston,  S.  C,  48,540  pounds;  and  at  Savannah,  12,931 
pounds.  The  total  for  all  provinces,  always  excepting  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  was  580,831  pounds,  on  which  the 
diiU'-  was  paid  without  arousing  comment. 
.  k^ew  York  and  Philadelphia  were  the  only  parts  of 
British  America  where  the  people  faithfully  observed  the 

^  For  further  confirmatory  evidence,  vide,  in  the  case  of  Massachu- 
setts, Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Dec.  6,  1773;  for  Maryland,  Md.  Gas., 
Aug.  18,  1774;  for  Georgia,  Ga.  Gas.,  July  2y,  lyjA-  Cf.  Meredith's 
statement  in  House  of  Commons,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1624-1625. 

^  Abstract  prepared  in  the  office  of  the  inspector  of  imports  and  ex- 
ports ;  quoted  by  Channing,  History  of  U.  S.,  vol.  iii,  p.  128  n. 

*"Q"  in  the  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Nov.  15,  1773,  declared  that  173  different 
merchants  w^ere  concerned  in  this  importation ;  but  a  letter  from  Boston 
in  tlie  Pa.  Packet,  Dec.  13,  1773,  claimed  that  the  number  of  importers 
had  been  confounded  with  the  number  of  importations. 

*  Letter  of  Benjamin  Hallowell;  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol.  xxiv,  no. 
2029,  p.  5.  A  chest  contained  340  pounds.  Vide  also  John  Adams's 
Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  381. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  247 

boycott  against  dutied  tea.^  These  places  were  the  chief 
centers  for  tea-smuggHng  in  America.,,  Unembarrassed  by 
the  presence  of  the  Customs  Board,  the  enterprising  mer- 
chants of  these  ports  drove  a  brisk  trade  with  Holland, 
Sweden  and  Germany  and  with  the  Dutch  island  of  St. 
Eustatius  for  contraband  tea,  powder  and  other  supplies  but 
particularly  for  the  forbidden  tea.^„^ieutenant  Governor 
Golden  and  Lord  Dartmouth  exchanged  views  on  the  sub- 
ject, agreeing  in  the  sentiment  that  the  illicit  trade  between 
New  York  and  Holland  prevailed  "  to  an  enormous  de- 
gree." ^  "  It  is  well  known,"  wrote  Samuel  Seabury  in 
1774,  "  that  little  or  no  tea  has  been  entered  at  the  Gustoms 
House  for  several  years.  All  that  is  imported  is  smuggled 
from  Holland,  and  the  Dutch  Islands  in  the  West  Indies."  * 
Gilbert  Barkly,  a  Philadelphia  merchant  of  sixteen  years' 
standing,  wrote  in  May,  1773,  of  the  extensive  smuggling 
of  tea  "  from  Holland,  France,  Sweden,  Lisbon  &c,  St. 
Eustatia,  in  the  West  Indies  &c."  ^  Smuggling  "  has  amaz- 
ingly encreased  within  these  twenty  years  past,"  asserted 
"A  Tradesman  of  Philadelphia."  ^  Hutchinson  informed 
the  home  government  that  "  in  New  York  they  import 
scarce  any  other  than  Dutch  teas.  In  Rhode  Island  and 
Pennsylvania,  it  is  little  better."  '  <:^ince  smuggled  tea  was 

'  Contemporaries  realized  this.  E.  g.,  vide  "A  Tradesman  of  Phila- 
delphia" in  Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  17,  1774. 

^  Letters  of  Hutchinson  in  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  p.  317;  Bos.  Gas., 
Nov.  27,  Dec.  4,  1775;  A^.  Engl.  Chron.,  July  29. 

^N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  487,  510-512. 

*  Free  Thoughts  on  the  Proceedings  of  the  Continental  Congress  .  .  . 
By  a  Farmer  (1774).  Also  znde  Becker,  N.  Y.  Parties,  1760-1776,  p.  84, 
n.  158. 

'Drake,  F.  S.,  Tea  Leaves  (Boston,  1884),  p.  201. 

^Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  17,  1774. 

''Letter  of  Sept.  10,  1771 ;  Bos.  Gas.,  Nov.  27,  1775.  Newport  prob- 
ably ranked  next  in  importance  to  New  York  and  Philadelphia  as  a 
centre  for  tea-smuggling.     I'ide  Drake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  194-197. 


248  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

cheaper  for  the  consumer  to  drink  than  dutied  tea  and  the 
profits  of  the  tea  dealer  greater,  the  systematic  neglect  of 
the  dutied  article  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  corres- 
ponded as  much  to  self-interest  as  devotion  to  principle, 
and  gave  fair  occasion  for  the  coining  of  the  epigrarn  that 
11^  smuggler  and  a  whig  are  cousin  Germans  .  .  ."  ^  - 
'yn^he  smuggling  merchants  experienced  little  difficulty  in 
getting  their  teas  into  AmericaN,^  Notwithstanding  all  the 
regulations  of  recent  years,  thefe  were  still  many  secluded 
landing  places  on  the  extensive  coast  line  and  all  the  tricks 
which  the  mind  of  a  resourceful  skipper  could  invent  to 
deceive  the  customs  officials.^  There  were,  furthermore, 
customs  officials  who,  from  lack  of  reward  from  the  govern- 
ment, did  not  care  to  risk  "  the  rage  of  the  people,"  ^  or 
who,  because  of  the  forehandedness  of  the  smugglers, 
found  rich  reward  in  conniving  at  the  traffic.  Golden  cited 
the  case  of  his  grandson,  recently  appointed  surveyor  and 
searcher  of  the  port  of  New  York,  who  was  given  to  under- 
stand by  interested  parties  that  "  if  he  would  not  be  officious 
in  his  Duty,  he  might  depend  upon  receiving  £1500  a  year."  * 
The  views  of  contemporary  observers  throw  some  light 
on  the  proportion  of  imported  tea  which  failed  to  pay  the 
parliamentary  duty.  Governor  Hutchinson,  who  seems  to 
have  furnished  the  brains  for  the  tea  business  carried  on 

* "  Massachusettensis  "  in  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  2,  1775. 

'  E.  g.,  filling  the  interstices  of  a  lumber  cargo  with  tea,  carrying 
false  bills  of  lading,  and  the  like;  private  letters  in  Pub.  Rec.  Off.: 
C.  O.  5,  no.  138  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  pp.  151-152,  175.  Vide  the  sailing 
orders  of  Captain  Hammond  for  obtaining  a  tea  cargo  at  Goteborg  or 
Hamburg  and  for  running  it  past  the  customs  officials  at  Newport. 
R.  /.  Commerce,  vol.  i,  pp.  332-333. 

^Letters  of  Hutchinson  to  Hillsborough,  Aug.  25,  Sept.  10,  1771,  in 
Bos.  Gas.,  Nov.  27,  1775. 

*  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  370-372. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  249 

by  his  sons  at  Boston,  estimated  that  the  total  annual 
consumption  of  teas  in  America  was  19,200  chests  or  6,- 
528,000  pounds/  For  approximately  the  same  period,  the 
amount  of  tea  that  paid  the  duty  was  about  320,000  pounds.' 
Hutchinson's  estimate  was  evidently  wide  of  the  mark,  for 
even  Samuel  Wharton,  who  gravely  averred  that  the  fron- 
tiersmen and  many  Indians  shared  the  popular  habit  of  im- 
bibing tea  twice  a  day,  placed  the  total  consumption  at  a 
million  and  a  half  pounds  less.^  The  London  tea  merchant, 
William  Palmer,  judged  more  dispassionately  when  he 
hazarded  a  figure  about  half  of  that  named  by  Hutchinson, 
remarking  that  Hutchinson's  estimate  of  "  19,200  chests 
is  more  than  has  been  hitherto  annually  imported  from 
China  by  all  foreign  companies."  *  ^Assuming  Palmer's 
conservative  figure  to  be  approximately  correct,  the  con- 
clusion would  seem  vahd  that  in  a  year,  like  1771,  marked 
by  unusually  large  importations  of  customed  tea,  more 
than  nine-tenths  of  the  tea  consumed  was  illicitly  imported^ 
j^he  incentive  to  smuggling  existed  in  spite  of  the  well- 
intentioned  efforts  of  the  British  government.  The  Towns- 
hend  act  of  1767,  although  imposing  a  small  import  duty  of 
threepence  a  pound  in  America,  had  removed  all  British  im- 

*  Bos.  Gas.,  Nov.  27,  1775- 

*  The  amount  of  dutied  tea  imported  from  Dec.  i,  1770  to  Jan.  5,  1772 
was  344,771  pounds,  according  to  an  abstract  prepared  in  the  office  of  the 
inspector  of  imports  and  exports;  quoted  by  Channing,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii, 
p.  128  n. 

*  "  Observations,"  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxv,  p.  140. 

*  Drake,  op.  cit.,  p.  197. 

*  Hutchinson  in  1771  set  the  figure  at  nine-tenths  for  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  and  five-sixths  for  Massachusetts.  Bos.  Gas.,  Nov.  27, 
1775-  He  said  elsewhere  that  the  contraband  tea  consumed'  at  Boston 
came  there  by  way  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Mass.  Arch.,  vol. 
xxvii,  p.  317. 


^^O  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

port  duties  from  tea  exported  to  America/  and  had  thus, 
for  a  time  at  least,  reduced  the  cost  of  EngHsh  tea  to  the 
American  consumer  below  that  of  the  contraband  article. 
This  advantageous  situation  of  English  tea  could,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  continue  only  so  long  as  the  wholesale 
price  of  the  tea  in  the  English  market  did  not  go  up,  >or  the 
price  of  smuggled  tea  fall.  The  former  occurrec^r  The 
East  India  Company,  although  not  permitted  to  sell  at 
retail,  were  permitted  to  name  an  upset  price  at  their  public 
auction  sales.  Treading  the  edge  of  a  quicksand  of  bank- 
ruptcy and  obliged  by  the  act  of  1767  to  make  good  any 
deficiency  in  the  revenues  resulting  from  the  discontinuance 
of  certain  tea  duties,  the  company  sought  to  recoup  their 
losses  by  advancing  the  upset  price  of  tea.  Governor  Hutch- 
inson wrote  to  Lord  Hillsborough  on  August  25,  1771  :  "  If 
the  India  company  had  continued  the  sale  of  their  teas  at  2s. 
2d.  to  2s.  4d.  as  they  sold  two  years  ago,  the  Dutch  trade 
would  have  been  over  by  this  time;  but  now  that  the  teas 
are  at  3s.  the  illicit  traders  can  afford  to  lose  one  chest  in 
three  .  .  ."  ^  Meantime,  Dutch  teas  were  selling  in  Hol- 
land from  i8d.  to  2s.  per  pound  and  paid  no  import  duty 
into  America.^  Hutchinson  urged  constantly  in  his  busi- 
ness and  political  correspondence  that  "  by  some  means  or 
other  the  price  of  Teas  in  England  to  the  Exporter  ought 
to  be  kept  nearer  to  the  price  in  Holland."  * 

The  next  act  of  Parliament  dealing  with  the  East  India 


< 


1  7  George  III,  c.  56.  Vide  Farrand's  article  already  referred  to,  in 
Am.  Hist.  Rev.  vol.  iii,  pp.  266-269. 

*  Bos.  Gas.,  Nov.  27,  1775. 

'  Drake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  191,  192,  194-197.  Hutchinson  calculated  the  cost 
of  landing  smuggled  tea  at  five  per  cent. 

*  Letters  to  William  Palmer  and  Lord  Hillsborough,  in  Mass.  Arch., 
vol.  xxvii,  pp.  206-207;  Bos.  Gaz.,  Nov.  27,  Dec.  4,  1775.  Vide  also  me- 
morial of  Barkly,  the  Philadelphia  merchant,  to  the  same  purpose. 
Drake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  199-202. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  25 1 

Company,  enacted  in  June,  1772,  relieved  the  company  from 
future  liability  for  deficiency  in  the  tea  revenues  but  granted 
a  drawback  of  only  three-fifths  of  the  English  import  duties 
on  tea  exported  to  America  instead  of  a  complete  reim- 
bursement as  formerly.^'  This  act  failed  to  alter  the  situ- 
ation materially,  so  far  as  the  American  dealer  in  dutied 
teas  was  concerned. ■  ^he  tea  smuggler  continued  to  con- 
trol, the  situation,  particularly  at  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia; and  in  the  period  from  December  i,  1770  to  the  ter- 
mination of  the  customs  service  in  1775,  only  874  pounds 
of  customed  tea  were  imported  at  New  York  and  128  pounds 
at  Philadelphia.^ 

Illicit  traffic  in  other  commodities  was  also  carried  on, 
although  probably  in  lesser  volume  than  ever  before.  The 
total  duties  collected  on  wines  and  molasses  in  all  the  colonies 
increased  steadily  until  1773.'*  During  the  year  1772,  ships- 
of-war  all  along  the  coast  displayed  greater  activity  and 

more  than  doubled  the  amount  of  their  seizures.^  v^Exces- 

\ 

^  12  George  III,  c.  60.  The  East  India  Company  were  obliged  to  pay 
the  British  government  more  than  £115,000  as  a  result  of  the  falling  off 
of  the  tea  revenues  during  the  first  four  years  under  the  act  of  1767. 

*  It  vi'ould  appear  that  certain  other  trading  conditions  discouraged 
the  merchants  of  the  Middle  Colonies  from  undertaking  the  importation 
of  English  teas.  English  ports,  unlike  those  of  Holland  and  certain 
other  foreign  countries,  were  seldom  open  for  the  importation  of 
American  corn  and  flour;  and  even  when  they  were,  the  sales  of  the 
East  India  Company  occurred  at  such  irregular  intervals  that  colonial 
merchants  did  not  know  when  to  direct  their  proceeds  to  be  invested 
in  teas  as  homeward  freight.  Moreover,  American  merchants  received 
preferential  treatment  at  the  foreign  ports, — a  moderate  price  and 
^'Advantageous  Terms  of  Discount,  Difference  of  Weight  &c,  amount- 
ing in  the  whole,  to  near  20  per  Centum."    Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxv,  p.  140. 

'  Channing,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  128  n. 

*  Vide  table  compiled  from  accounts  of  cashier  of  the  American  cus- 
toms ;  quoted  by  Channing,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  go  n. 

^Seizures  by  ships-of-war  amounted  to  £719  in  1771;  £2017  in  1772. 


252 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


sive  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  customs  officials  still  had  a  ten- 
dency to  excite  popular  fury ;  and  indeed  it  was  an  incident 
growing  out  of  this  situation  that  produced  the  first  serious 
clash  between  tlT£  British  government  and  the  colonists 
during  this  period./  Already  in  November,  1771,  the  comp- 
troller of  the  customs  at  Falmouth  had  been  aroused  from 
his  slumbers  by  disguised  men  and,  at  the  point  of  a  pistol, 
forced  to  divulge  the  name  of  the  person  who  had  lodged 
an  information  with  him/  In  the  same  month,  a  mob  of 
thirty  disguised  men  had  overcome,  with  some  brutality, 
the  crew  of  a  revenue  schooner  anchored  near  Philadelphia, 
and  had  rescued  a  captive  vessel  that  was  laden  with  contra- 
band tea,  claret  and  gin.^ 

y  ':Resistance  to  customs  authority  reached  its  climax  in  the 
v4estruction  of  the  revenue  vessel  Gaspee  on  the  night  of  June 
9,  1772.  -- The  commander  of  the  vessel,  Lieutenant  Dud- 
ingstori,  had,  in  patrolling  Narragansett  Bay  and  the  con- 
necting waters,  displayed  "  an  intemperate,  if  not  a  repre- 
hensible zeal  to  aid  the  revenue  service."  ^  He  had  made 
himself  obnoxious  to  legitimate  traders  as  well  as  to  smug- 
glers, and  was  believed  to  have  contributed,  through  his 
officiousness,  "  not  a  little  to  enhance  the  price  of  fuel  and 
provisions  "  in  Rhode  Island.*     One  day  while  pursuing  a 

However,  seizures  by  land  officers  fell  from  £607  to  ^3/8.  P''ide  Chan- 
ning,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  89  n.  Notices  of  the  Vice-Admiralty  Court  in 
the  Boston  newspapers  showed  that  large  quantities  of  goods  were  being 
condemned  for  illegal  importation,  especially  molasses,  sugars  and 
wines.  For  an  example  of  increased  activity  at  New  York,  vide  R.  L 
Commerce,  vol.  i,  p.  383. 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  26-27. 

'Pa.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  x,  pp.  8-15. 

*  Report  of  the  royal  Commission  of  Inquiry;  Bartlett,  J.  R.,  A  His- 
tory of  the  Destruction  of  His  Britanuic  Majesty's  Schooner  Gaspee 
.  .  .  (Providence,  1861),  p.  128. 

•*  Governor  Wanton  to  Hillsborough;  ibid.,  p.  39. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  253 

colonial  \esseli;jh\\Gaspeeya.n  aground ^PH-'a^arrow~S£__  _ 
land  about  six  miles  ns^rrTt'rovidencQ:  Led  by  John  Brown, 
the  most  opulent  merchant  of  that  (town,  and  by  Abraham 
Whipple,  a  ship  captain  in  the  West  rwdianjirade,.  a  band"^ 
citizens  boarded  the  vessel  in  the  night,  seized  the  crew  and 
set  the  vessel  on  fire.^  A  commission  of  inquiry  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  king  to  sift  the  matter  and  to  convey  the 
perpetrators  out  of  the  colony  for  trial.  Although  the  names 
of  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  affair  were  known  to  at 
least  a  thousand  persons,  no  one  could  be  found  to  inform 
the  commissioners  against  them.  Moreover,  Stephen  Hop- 
kins, chief  justice  of  Rhode  Island  and  a  shipbuilder  and  ex- 
smuggler  himself,  declared  that  not  a  person  should  be 
removed  for  trial  outside  of  the  colony's  limits,  xj'he  com- 
missioners abandoned  the  inquiry  and  reported  their  failure 
to  the  home  government.  ,-  The  latter  did  not  appear  anxious 
to  make  an  issue  of  the  Gaspee  incident.  Lieutenant  Dud- 
ingston  was  sued  by  some  Rhode  Island  merchants  for  al- 
leged unlawful  conversion  of  sundry  casks  of  rum  and  sugar. 
After  three  trials  in  local  courts,  he  acknowledged  himself 
beaten,  and  the  Customs  Board  at  Boston  made  good  his 
losses  to  the  extent  of  £363."  .  In  general,  revenue  vessels 
relaxed  their  vigilance  during  the,  year  1773;  and  their 
seizures  fell  off  almost  three-fifths.^ 

iQ^he  keener  minds  among  the  radicals  were  not  blind  to 

the  change  that  had  come  over  the  merchant  class  and  to  the, 

.  .        .     ^ 

resulting  paralysis  which  had  seized  on  the  public  mind.' 

1  Based  on  statement  of  a  participant  many  years  later ;  ibid.,  pp.  19-20. 
*'  Many  of  them  appeared  like  men  of  credit  and  tradesmen ;  and  but 
few  like  common  men,"  declared  the  deposition  of  Midshipman  Dickin- 
son.   Ibid.,  p.  31. 

'  Channing,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  126. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  89  n.;  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol.  xxiv,  no.  2029,  p.  5. 


254 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


4^am  Adams's  comment  when  the  Boston  merchants  decided 
to  abandon  their  general  suspension  of  trade  for  tea  non- 
importation alone  showed  keen  appreciation  of  the  economic 
basis  of  mercantile  discontent.  Admitting  freely  that  the 
merchants  had  held  out  longer  than  he  had  expected  and 
that  his  connection  with  them  had  been  "  but  as  an  Auxiliary 
in  their  Nonimportation  Agreement,"  he  wrote  to  a  brother 
radical  in  South  Carolina  in  this  strain : 

Let  the  Colonies  still  convince  their  implacable  Enemies  that, 
they  are  united  in  constitutional  Principles,  and  are  resolved 
they  will  not  be  Slaves ;  that  their  Dependance  is  not  upon 
Merchants  or  any  particular  Class  of  Men,  nor  is  their  dernier 
resort  a  resolution  barely  to  withhold  Commerce  with  a  nation 
that  would  subject  them  to  despotic  Power/ 

In  effect,.^'he  was  saying  that  the  merchant  class  had  been 
utilized  to  the  utmost  as  fertilizers  of  discontent ;  that 
their  spirit  for  trade  redress  had  sustained  them  surpris- 
ingly well  in  their  opposition  to  England  but  that  hence- 
forth the  struggle  of  the  colonies  must  be  divorced  from  the 
self-interest  ^f  the  merchant  class  and  rest  on  a  broader 
popular  basis\ 

<Adams  lapored  hard  to  keep  alive  radical  sentiment  in 
Boston^)  James  Otis,  in  his  intervals  of  sanity,  was  pursuing 
a  strongly  reactionary  course.^  John  Adams  withdrew  him- 
self from  public  life,  devoting  himself  to  his  profession; 
and  for  a  time  he  ceased  even  to  use  his  pen  in  defense  of 
popular  rights.  Sam  Adams's  chief  care  was  to  keep  hot  the 
coals  of  Hancock's  resentment  against  Parliament,  for  Han- 
cock was  the  local  Croesus,"  and  some  of  his  funds  and  all 

^  To  Peter  Timothy,  Nov.  21,  1770;  Adams,  Writings  (Gushing), 
vol.  ii,  p.  65.     Vide  also  ibid.,  p.  58. 

'  Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  266. 

*John  Adams  credited  the  statement  that  "not  less  than  one  thou- 
sand families  were,  every  day  in  the  year,  dependent  on  Mr.  Hancock  for 
their  daily  bread."    Ibid.,  vol.  x,  p.  260. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


255 


of  his  influence  had  been  employed  to  promote  the  anti- 
parHamentary  movement  in  the  preceding  years.  But,  as 
was  the  case  with  many  another  merchant,  Hancock's  busi- 
ness affairs  had  gone  awry  while  he  was  playing  the  politi- 
cian ;  ^  and  he  was  averse  to  any  further  agitation  by  the 
radicals  while  the  golden  fruits  of  (Commerce  invited  pick- 
ing. "All  friendship  between  them  was  suddenly^t  an  end," 
wrote  Hutchinson  in  his  history,  "  and  Mr.  Hancock  ex- 
pressed his  dissatisfaction  with  the  party,  and  with  their 
extending  their  designs  further  than  appeared  to  him  war- 
rantable." ^  For  the  next  couple  of  years,  Hancock,  al- 
though resisting  all  efforts  of  Governor  Hutchinson  to  com- 
mit him  to  the  other  side,  pursued  the  course  of  the  typical 
merchant,  and  at  several  critical  times  threw  his  influence 
and  vote  in  favor  of , conciliation  and  against  the  disturbing 
schemes  of  Adams.  ^  y 

/'What  the  radical  cause  lacked  was,  first,  a  compelling  > 
isSlie,  and,  second,  an  organization  divorced  from  the  con-y/ 
trol  of  the  merchant  class.^  The  home  government  supplied 
promising  material  for  tne  first  when  the  report  reached 
Boston  in  late  September,   1772,  that  the  salaries  of  the 
judges  would  thereafter  be  paid  out  of  the  customs  revenue.  - 
No  propagandist  ever  utilized  an  opportunity  more  dexter- 
ously than  did  Sam  Adams  on  this  occasion.     Masquerad-^ 
ing  under  the  signature  "  Valerius  Poplicola,"  he  appeared 
in  the  Boston  Gazette  of  October  5,  1772  in  an  eloquent  pro- 
test against  the  innovation.     "  The  Merchants  of  this  Con- 
tinent," he  declared, 

have  passively  submitted  to  the  Indignity  of  a  Tribute ;  and 

^  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  pp.  158,  163,  168. 

^  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  346.  See  also  Wells,  Samuel  Adams,  vol.  i, 
pp.  458,  459. 

*  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  348,  356,  361 ;  Wells,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  465-475.  '/       ^        ■    • 


256  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  Landholders,  tho'  Sharers  in  the  Indignity,  have  been  per- , 
haps  too  unconcern'd  Spectators  of  the  humiliating  Scene.  .  .  . 
Had  the  Body  of  this  People  shown  a  proper  Resentment,  at 
the  time  when  the  proud  Taskmasters  first  made  their  appear- 
ance, we  should  never  have  seen  Pensioners  multiplying  like 
the  Locusts  in  Egypt.  ...  Is  it  not  High  Time  for  the  People 
of  this  Country  explicitly  to  declare,  whether  they  will  be 
Freemen  or  Slaves?  .  .  .  Let  us  .  .  .  calmly  look  around  us  and 
consider  what  is  best  to  be  done.  .  .  .  Let  it  be  the  topic  of  con- 
versation in  every  social  Club.  Let  every  Town  assemble. 
Let  Associations  &  Combinations  be  everywhere  set  up  to 
consult  and  recover  our  just  Rights.^ 

With  the  radical  program  so  outlined,  ^Adams  decided  to 
work  out  the  plan  through  the  agency  of  the  town  meeting.^ 
Of  these  town  meetings,  Hutchinson  had  already  written 
several  months  earlier :  they  are  "  constituted  of  the  lowest 
class  of  the  people  under  the  influence  of  a  few  of  a  higher 
class,  but  of  intemperate  and  furious  dispositions  and  of 
desperate  fortunes.  ]\Ien  of  property  and  of  the  best  char- 
acter have  deserted  these  meetings,  where  they  are  sure  of 
being  affronted."  '  According  to  Adams'  plan,  a  petition 
for  a  town  meeting  w'as  at  once  presented  to  the  selectmen. 
Hancock  was  a  selectman  and,  with  three  or  four  others, 
he  unhesitatingly  rejected  the  petition,  disapproving  of  what 
seemed  to  him  precipitate  measures.  Other  petitions  were 
then  set  on  foot,  and  finally,  after  more  than  three  weeks' 
delay,  the  selectmen  yielded  to  the  pressure.^    The  meeting 

^  Adams,  S.,  IVritings  (Gushing),  vol.  ii,  pp.  332-337. 

*This  letter  of  j\Ich.  29,  1772  to  Hillsborough  continued:  "By  the 
constitution  £40  stg.,  which  they  say  may  be  in  cloaths,  household 
furniture  or  any  sort  of  property,  is  a  qualification ;  and  even  with  that 
there  is  scarce  ever  any  inquiry,  and  anything  with  the  appearance  of  a 
man  is  admitted  without  scrutiny."     Hosmer,  Hutchinson,  p.  231. 

'  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  361-362 ;  Wells,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
490-491. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


257 


occurred  on  Wednesday,  October  28,  and  two  adjourned 
sessions  were  needed  to  carry  on  an  animated  colloquy  with 
Governor  Hutchinson  over  the  question  of  the  judges' 
salaries/  At  the  last  meeting,  on  November  2,  the  temper 
of  the  citizens  had  reached  the  proper  pitch;  Adams  seized 
the  moment  to  introduce  a  motion  for  a  standing  committee 
of  correspondence  with  the  purpose 

to  state  the  Rights  of  the  Colonists  and  of  this  Province  in 
particular  .  .  .  ,  to  communicate  and  publish  the  same  to  the 
several  Towns  in  this  Province  and  to  the  World  as  the  sense 
of  this  Town,  with  the  Infringements  and  violations  thereof 
that  have  been  or  from  time  to  time  may  be  made ;  also  request- 
ing of  each  Town  a  free  Communication  of  their  Sentiments.^ 

The  motion  was  carried  unanimously .> 

Adams  had  succeeded  in  arousing  the  town  meeting;  he 
had  yet  to  convince  the  men  who  had  been  leaders  in  the 
late  agitation  against  the  Townshend  duties  of  the  propriety 
of  his  course.  A  number  of  these  men,  although  asked  to 
serve  on  the  committee,  declined  their  appointments.  Three 
of  the  Boston  representatives  in  the  Assembly,  Speaker 
Cushing,  Hancock  and  William  Phillips,  and  three  select- 
men, Samuel  Austin,  John  Scollay  and  Thomas  Marshall, 
all  merchants,  excused  themselves,  each  alleging  "  his  private 
Business  would  not  then  admit  of  it."  At  least  three  others 
took  a  like  step.^  James  Otis  was  induced  to  accept  the 
chairmanship.  The  twenty-one  men  who  composed  the 
committee  were  the  best  who  could  be  obtained  under  the 
circumstances,  and  probably  served  Adams'  purposes  better 

*  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Nov.  2,  9,  1772. 

'  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  i,  p.  i ;  also  Bos.  Toivn  Recs.  {i770-i777), 
pp.  92-93. 

*  Benjamin  Austin,  Benjamin  Kent  and  Samuel  Swift.  "  Q.  E.  D." 
in  Mass.  Gaz.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  12,  1772. 


258  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

than  if  the  more  weighty  citizens  had  been  persuaded  to 
sacrifice  their  private-  interests.  Otis  soon  retired  to  the 
madhouse;  and  the<:!lGrand  Incendiary  of  the  Province"  ^ 
himself  assumed  the  chairmanship,  a  substitution  which, 
to  Hutchinson's  view,  was  probably  little  better  than  a 
change  from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip  sober.  In  the  commit- 
tee as  completed,  the  merchant  element  was  in  the  minor- 
ity ;  and  the  effective  activity  of  the  committee  was  largely 
directed  by  the  chairman.  .Hutchinson  had  as  yet  no  sus- 
picion that  "  the  foulest,  subtlest  and  most  venomous  ser- 
pent that  ever  issued  from  the  eggs  of  sedition  "  ^  was 
growing  before  his  eyes>^  "  The  restless  faction,"  he  wrote 
jeeringly  to  England,  were  unable  "  to  revive  the  old  plan 
of  mobbing;  and  the  only  dependence  left  is  to  keep  up  a 
correspondence  through  the  Province  by  committees  of  the 
several  towns,  which  is  such  a  foolish  scheme  that  they  must 
necessarily  make  themselves  ridiculous."  ^ 

The  plan  began  to  yield  fruit  when  the  committee  re- 
ported to  the  town  meeting  on  November  20  a  cogently 
reasoned  paper,  written  by  Adams,  which  was  unanimously 
accepted  by  the  three  hundred  men  present.  This  docu- 
ment revealed  the  consummate  ability  of  the  master  agita- 
tor. Frankly  designed  to  arouse  the  public  from  their 
lethargic  sleep,  the  paper  bristled  with  allusions  to  past  irri- 
tations and  future  perils;  it  gave  to  current  abstractions  a 
practical  application ;  it  made  bold  appeals  to  the  self-inter- 
est of  smuggling  merchants  and  to  the  self-esteem  of  home- 
manufacturing  farmers;  it  pictured  the  dwindling  sphere 

^  Hutchinson's  characterization  of  Adams ;  Wells,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  488. 

^  The  well  known  phrase  of  "  Massachusettensis,"  in  Mass.  Gas.  & 
Post-Boy,  Jan.  2,  1775. 

^Letter  of  Nov.  13,  1772  to  Secretary  Pownall;  Hosmer,  op.  cit., 
p.  235- 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  259 

of  provincial  self-government,  and  dangled  the  bogey  of  an 
American  episcopate.  The  lengthy  "  List  of  Infringements 
&  Violations  of  Rights  "  was  presented  in  terms  which  could 
be  understood  by  the  least  imaginative.  The  revenue  duty 
on  tea  was  represented  as  an  entering  wedge  for  other  taxes 
which  might  affect  lands;  the  arbitrary  powers  of  the  cus- 
toms officials  with  respect  to  searching  vessels  or  houses  for 
smuggled  goods  were  fully  dilated  upon;  the  presence  of 
"  Fleets  and  Armies  "  for  supporting  "  these  unconstitu- 
tional Officers  in  collecting  and  managing  this  unconstitu- 
tional Revenue  "  was  noted ;  the  extension  of  the  power  of 
the  vice-admiralty  courts  was  once  more  condemned;  the 
laws  against  slitting  mills  and  the  transportation  of  hats 
and  wool  were  cited  as  "  an  infringement  of  that  right  with 
which  God  and  nature  have  invested  us."  Regarding  the 
payment  of  the  governor's  and  judges'  salaries,  i.  e.  of 
"  the  men  on  whose  opinions  and  decisions  our  properties 
liberties  and  lives,  in  a  great  measure,  depend,"  the  divorcing 
of  these  branches  from  popular  control  was  deplored  as  fatal 
to  free  government.  References  were  also  made  to  inter- 
ferences in  provincial  home  rule  through  the  agency  of  royal 
instructions,  and  to  minor  matters.^ 

v^This  document,  which,  according  to  Hutchinson,  "  was 
calculated  to  strike  the  colonists  with  a  sense  of  their  just 
claim  to  independence,  and  to  stimulate  them  to  assert  it,"  ^ 
was  sent  to  all  the  towns  in  the  province,  with  a  circular 
letter  urging  that  they  freely  communicate  their  own  senti- 
ments and  give  appropriate  instructions  to  their  representa- 
tives in  the  Assembly.")  The  maneuver  of  Boston  met  with 
immediate  success.     Groups  of  extremists  in  the  various 

"^  Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1770-1777),  pp.  94-108;  also  Adams,  S.,  Writings 
(Gushing),  vol.  ii,  pp.  350-374. 

^  Mass.  Bay,  vol.  iii,  p.  366. 


/ 


26o  TH^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

localities  engineered  town  meetings,  which  approved  the 
Boston  resolutions  or  adopted  others  more  radical,  and  ap- 
pointed standing  committees  of  correspondence  composed  of 
radicals.  In  all,  seventy-eight  such  meetings,  mostly  of 
inland  towns  but  including  the  ports  of  Plymouth,  Marble- 
head  and  Newburyport,  were  noted  in  the  journals  of  the 
Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  or  in  the  newspapers. 

Thus,  all  on  a  sudden,  from  a  state  of  peace,  order,  and  general 
contentment,  as  some  expressed  themselves,  the  province,  more 
or  less  from  one  end  to  the  other,  was  brought  into  a  state  of 
contention,  disorder  and  general  dissatisfaction;  or,  as  others 
would  have  it,  were  aroused  from  stupor  and  inaction,  to  sen- 
sibility and  activity.^ 

/^, 

''■Q^he  merchants  as  a  class  continued  to  hold  aloof  from  the 

^organized  popular  clamor.^  When  the  Assembly  met  in 
February,  1773,  Governor  Hutchinson,  now  keenly  alive  to 
the  danger,  denounced  the  committee  of  correspondence  sys- 
tem as  unwarrantable  and  of  dangerous  tendency,  and  asked 
the  body  to  join  him  in  discountenancing  such  innovations.' 
This  unwise  action  produced  a  storm  of  messages  and  re- 
plies that,  for  the  time,  fanned  higher  the^flame  which  was 
already  beginning  to  die  for  lack  of  fuel^ 

Indeed  the  weakness  of  Adams'  plan  was  that  the  mani- 
festo of  the  Boston  town  meeting  was  largely  a  recitation 
of  old  grievances,  and  the  leading  new  issue  could  scarcely 

^  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  3/0  n.  Note  some  of  the  extravagant 
protests  against  "  these  mighty  grievances  and  intolerable  wrongs,"  so 
freshly  discovered !     Ibid.,  pp.  369-370  n. 

^  It  is  significant  that  Salem  failed  to  take  action,  and  that  tw-enty- 
nine  of  substance  and  character  at  Marblehead  expressed  their  "  entire 
disapprobation."  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Dec.  28,  1772;  Adams,  S., 
JV}-itings  (Cashing),  vol.  ii,  p.  350.  The  little  town  of  Weston  refused 
to  appoint  a  committee  by  a  large  vote. 

'Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  370-390;  Hosmer,  op.  cit.,  pp.  396 
et  seq. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  261 

be  an  enduring  one  to  a  people  who  had  been  complaining 
for  generations  against  the  burden  of  paying  high  salaries 
to  governors  and  judges.  Moreover^dhe  radical  propaganda 
had  not  yet  advanced  to  a  stage  where  it  could  be  sustained 
without  the  support  of  the  merchant  class!^  Adams,  how- 
ever, had  an  abiding  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  a  campaign  of 
education  and  agitation,  and  in  the  establishment  of  a  popu- 
lar organization  which  would  be  ready  for  action  when  the 
time  should  arrive. 

The  matter  of  salaries  was  in  form  a  local  issue,  and 
was  not  likely  to  stir  the  people  of  other  provinces  to  the 
point  of  organization.  However,  the  radicals  of  the  Vir- 
ginia House  of  Burgesses,  in  March,  1773,  seized  the  op- 
portunity to  establish  a  single  committee  of  correspondence 
for  the  whole  province,  when  news  reached  them  that  a 
royal  commission  of  inquiry  of  large  powers  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  investigate  the  Gaspee  affair.  This  committee,, 
composed  almost  entirely  of  radical  planters,  was  empowered 
"  to  obtain  the  most  early  and  authentic  intelligence  of  alli 
such  acts  and  resolutions  of  the  British  parliament,  or  pro- 
ceedings of  administration,  as  may  relate  to  or  affect  the 
British  colonies  in  America,"  and  to  carry  on  a  correspond- 
ence with  the  sister  provinces  respecting  these  matters.^ 
On  April  10,  1773,  Adams  wrote  to  a  member  of  the  Vir- 
ginia committee,  urging  the  establishment  of  municipal  com- 
mittees of  correspondence  in  every  province;^  but  he  did 
not  understand,  as  they  did,  that  political  leadership  in  Vir- 
ginia was  held  by  the  planting  class  and  that  the  few  urban 
centres  were  dominated  by  the  narrow  views  of  merchants 
and  factors.     The  Virginia  type  of  committee  became  at 

*  Frothingham,  Rise  of  Republic,  pp.  279-281.  Collins,  E.  D.,  "  Com- 
mittees of  Correspondence  of  the  American  Revolution,"  Am.  Hist. 
Assn.  Rep.  {1901),  vol.  i,  pp.  243-271,  is  important  in  this  connection. 

*  To  R.  H.  Lee;  Writings  (Cushing),  vol.  iii,  p.  26. 


262  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

once  the  popular  plan  of  organization  among  the  radicals; 
and  by  July,  1773,  ^ve  assemblies  had  followed  the  lead  of 
that  province. ^.-^t  was  not  until  Great  Britain  adopted  meas- 
ures which  affected  all  provinces  alike  and  which  aroused  the 
powerful  merchant  class  once  more  to  protest  that  the  or- 
ganization of  committees  in  local  subdivisions  throughout 
the  continent  was  made  possible.,:^;;;^fter  July,  1773,  the 
■/  flurry  of  discontent  stirred  up  by  the  radicals  of  ]\Iassachu- 
setts  and  Virginia  quickly  subsided." *^he  mercantile  and 
conservative  classes  had  made  their  influence  felt  once  more. 
General  apathy  again  reigned^ 

•-'As  destiny  would  have  it,  Lord  North,  not  Sam  Adams, 
was  responsible  for  the  abrupt  determination  of  the  mer- 
chant class  to  take  up  cudgels  again  hi  a  struggle  for  com- 
mercial rights  in  the  fall  of  1773:'^  It  was  the  enactment 
of  a  new  tea  act  by  Parliament  in  IMay,  1773,  that  caused  the 
\merchants  to  throw  discretion  to  the  winds  and  to  seek  again 
popularsu££Ort_Jor_xonnnercial  reform.'  the  earlier 

tea  legislation,  this  act  was  designed  to  a<xbmplish  a  double 
purpose :  to  help  the  East  India  Company  to  sell  their  surplus 
tea  stock,  amounting  to  seventeen  million  pounds;  and  to 
enforce  the  collection  of  the  parliamentary  tax  in  America. ^^^ 

^  R.  I.,  Conn.,  N.  H.,  Mass.,  S.  C.  A  second  group  of  assemblies 
acted  from  September,  1773,  to  February,  1774:  Ga.,  Md.,  Del.,  X.  Y.. 
N.  J.  Vide  CoUins's  article,  loc.  cif.  There  seemed  to  be  little  or  no 
connection  between  the  later  movement  and  the  agitation  against  the 
East  India  Company  which  was  developing  concurrently. 

*  For  one  thing,  the  commission  to  investigate  the  Gaspee  affair  had 
failed  to  exercise  any  of  their  extraordinary  powers. 

*  With  reference  to  the  second  purpose,  the  revenue  arising  from  all 
the  various  duties  in  America  during  1772  had  j-ielded  a  balance  of  less 
than  £85  above  the  expenses  of  collection,  not  counting  the  cost  of  main- 
taining ships-of-war  for  the  suppression  of  smuggling.  Franklin,  Writ- 
ings (Smyth),  vol.  v,  p.  460;  vol.  vi,  pp.  2-3.  Under  the  circumstances, 
it  was  cheaper  for  the  home  government  to  adopt  some  expedient  for 


y^ 


<&. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  263 

lie  act  of  1773  involved  no  new  infringement  of  the  con- 
"^titutional  or  natural  rights  of  the  Americans,  so  far  as  the 
taxation  principle  was  concerned.  Continuing  the  three- 
penny import  duty  in  America,  the  act  provided  that,  in  place 
of  a  partial  refund,  a  full  drawback  of  English  import  duties 
should  be  given  on  all  teas  re-shipped  to  America,  thus  re- 
storing the  arrangement  which  had  existed  under  the  Towns- 
hend  Act  save  that  the  company  were  not  to  be  liable  for 
deficiencies  in  the  revenue.  The  radical  innovation  was  in- 
troduced in  the  provision  which  empowered  the  East  India 
Company,  if  they  so  chose,  to  export  tea  to  America  or 
to  "  foreign  parts  "  from  their  warehouses  and  on  their  own 
account,  upon  obtaining  a  license  from  the  commissioners  of 
the  treasury.^ 

In  other  wordsjfthe  East  India  Company,  which  hitherto 
had  been  required  by  law  to  sell  their  teas  at  public  auction 
to  merchants  for  exportation,  were  now  authorized  to  be- 
come their  own  exporters  and  to  establish  branch  houses  in 
AmericaTi  This  arrangement  swept  away,  by  one  stroke, 
the  English  merchant  who  purchased  the  tea  at  the  com- 
pany's auction  and  the  American  merchant  who  bought  it 
of  the  English  merchant;  for  the  East  India  Company,  by 
dealing  directly  with  the  American  retailer,  eliminated  all 
the  profits  which  ordinarily  accumulated  in  the  passage  of 
the  tea  through  the  hands  of  the  middlemen?)>^From  another 
point  of  view,  as  Joseph  Galloway  has  poimed  out, 

the  consumer  of  tea  in  America  was  obliged  to  pay  only  one 

carrying  out  Hutchinson's  oft-repeated  suggestion  of  sinking  the  selling 
price  of  tea.  The  particular  method  adopted  had  already  been  suggested 
by  Samuel  Wharton  in  London  and  Gilbert  Barkly,  the  Philadelphia 
merchant,  and  by  others.  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxv,  pp.  139-141 ;  Drake,  op.  cit., 
pp.  199-202. 

*  13  George  III,  c.  44.  Such  exportation  was  to  be  permitted  only 
when  the  suppV  of  tea  in  the  company's  warehouses  amounted  to  at 
least  10,000,000  pounds. 


264  '^HE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

profit  to  the  Company,  another  to  the  shopkeeper.  But  before 
the  act,  they  usually  paid  a  profit  to  the  Company,  to  the  London 
merchant,  who  bought  it  of  the  Company  and  sold  it  to  the 
American  merchant,  and  also  to  the  American  merchant,  be- 
sides the  profit  of  the  retailer.  So  that,  by  this  act,  the  con- 
sumer of  this  necessary  and  common  article  of  subsistence 
was  enabled  to  purchase  it  at  one-half  of  its  usual  price  .  .  .^ 


/^. 


"he  colonial  merchant  class  saw  at  once  that  the  new  act,'^ 
u~  permitted  to  go  into  effect/  would  enable  the  American 
consumer  to  buy  dutied  teas,  imported  directly  by  the  East 
India  Company,  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  dutied  teas  imported 
in  the  customary  manner  by  private  merchants  or  than 
Dutch  teas  introduced  by  the  illicit  traders. '  Therefore, 
when  the  colonial  press  announced  in  September,  1773,  that 
the  East  India  Company  had  been  licensed  to  export  more 
than  half  a  million  pounds  of  tea  to  the  four  leading  ports 
of  America,  an  alliance  of  poAverful  interests  at  once  ap- 
peared in  opposition  to  the  company's  shipmentsj^v, 

As  Governor  Hutchinsoii  at  Boston  put  it  m  a  letter  of 
January  2,  1 774 : 

Our  liberty  men  had  lost  their  reputation  with  Philadelphia 
and  New  York,  having  been  importers  of  Teas  from  England 
for  three  or  four  Years  past  notwithstanding  the  engagement 
they  had  entrd  into  to  the  contrar\^  As  soon  as  the  news 
came  of  the  intended  exportation  of  Teas  [by  the]  E.  I.  Com- 
pany which  must  of  course  put  an  end  to  all  Trade  in  Teas  by 
private  Merchants,  proposals  were  made  both  to  Philadelphia 
and  York  for  a  new  Union,  and  they  were  readily  accepted,  for 
although  no  Teas  had  been  imported  from  England  at  either  of 
those  places,  yet  an  immense  profit  had  been  made  by  the  Im- 
portation from  Holland,  which  wou'd  entirely  cease  if  the  Teas 

^  Galloway,  Historical  and  Political  Reflections  on  the  Rise  and  Pro- 
gress of  the  American  Rebellion  (London,  1780),  pp.  17-18.  For  similar 
statements,  vide  also  "  Z "  in  Boston  Eve.  Post,  Oct.  25,  1773,  and 
"  Massachusettensis  "  in  Mass.  Gazette  and  Post-Boy,  Jan.  2,  1775. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  265 

from  the  E.  I.  Company  should  be  admitted.     This  was  the 
consideration  which  engaged  all  the  merchants.^ 

An  extended  controversy  began  in  newspaper  and  broad- 
side, which  not  only  revealed  the  fundamental  antagonism 
between  the  undertaking  of  the  British  trading  corporation 
and  the  interest  of  the  colonial  tea  merchants,  but  also 
pointed  out  the  far-reaching  menace  which  the  new  act  held 
for  American  merchants  in  general<''^o  broaden  the  basis 
of  the  popular  protest,  the  old  theoretical  arguments  against 
the  taxing  authority  of  Parliament  were  exhumed;  and  new 
and  bizarre  arguments  were  invented,  y 

An  examination  of  the  propagandist  literature  and  of  a 
few  private  letters  will  bear  out  this  preliminary  analysis. 
<CMost  of  the  writings  against  the  tea  shipments  issued  from 
the  presses  of  Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia  and,  with 
varying  emphasis,  covered  substantially  the  same  ground. 
The  Charleston  newspapers  reprinted  many  of  the  northern 
arguments,  and  the  events  there  may  therefore  be  said  to 
have  been  determined  in  large  part  by  the  same  sentiments.  \- 
V.  At  Boston,  the  newspaper  writers  laid  great  stress  on  the 
fact  that  the  legitimate  traffic  in  English  teas  was  assailed 
with  destructive  competition.  "A  Consistent  Patriot "  de- 
clared thatCthe  new  statute  would  displace  the  men  in  the 
American  tea  trade  and  force  them  to  seek  their  living  else- 
where "  in  order  to  make  room  for  an  East  India  factor, 
probably  from  North-Britain,  to  thrive  upon  what  are  now 
the  honest  gains  of  our  own  Merchants."^%  "  Surely  all  the 

1  Mass.  Archives,  vol.  xxvii,  p.  610.  Such  also  was  the  view  of  the  An- 
nual Register  (1774),  p.  48:  "All  the  dealers,  both  legal  and  clandestine, 
.  .  .  saw  their  trade  taken  at  once  out  of  their  hands.  They  supposed 
it  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  company's  consignees,  to  whom  they 
must  become  in  a  great  measure  dependent,  if  they  could  hope  to  trade 
at  all."  Vide  also  Ramsay,  History  of  the  American  Revolution  (Phila- 
delphia, 1789),  vol.  i,  p.  g6. 

*  Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  14,  1773. 


266  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

London  Merchants  trading  to  America  and  all  the  American 
Merchants  trading  with  Britain,"  said  "  Reclusus,"  "  must 
highly  resent  such  a  Monopoly,  considered  onl}'-  as  it  effects 
their  private  Interest "  and  without  regard  to  the  fact  that 
everyone  who  buys  the  tea  will  be  paying  tribute  to  the 
"  harpy  Commissioners  "  and  to  Parliament ;  the  newly- 
appointed  tea  consignees  "  can't  seriously  imagine  that  the 
Merchants  will  quietly  see  themselves  excluded  from  a  con- 
siderable branch  of  Trade  .  .  .  that  they  and  the  odious 
Commissioners  may  riot  in  luxury."  ^  "A  Merchant  "  ex- 
pressed surprise  that  the  merchants  and  traders  had  not  met 
to  take  action  in  the  crisis,  noting,  among  other  commercial 
ills,  that  "  those  gentlemen  that  have  dealt  in  that  article 
will  altogether  be  deprived  of  the  benefit  arising  from  such 
business."  ^  The  loyalist  town  of  Hinsdale,  N.  H.,  resolved 
unanimously  that  the  tumult  against  the  tea  was  not  due 
to  objections  against  a  revenue  tax,  "  but  because  the  in- 
tendecL'Method  of  Sale  in  this  Country  by  the  East  India 
Company  probably  would  hurt  the  private  Interest  of  many 
Persons  who  deal  largely  in  Tea.v^ 

xAt  New  York  and  Philadelphia^ the  chief  smuggling  ports, 
greater  emphasis  was  placed  on  the  threatened  ruin  awaiting 
the  illicit  tea  traffi^  The  Philadelphia  merchant,  Thomas 
Wharton,  pointed  out  that  "  it  is  impossible  always  to  form 
a  true  judgment  from  what  real  motives  an  opposition 
springs,  as  the  smugglers  and  London  importers  may  both 
declare  that  this  duty  is  stamping  the  Americans  with  the 
badge  of  slavery."  *     A  tea  commissioner  at  Boston  believed 

^  Boston  Eve.  Post,  Oct.  i8,  1773. 

'Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  28,  1773. 

'A''.  H.  Gazette,  June  17,  1774.  Other  acts  of  Parliament,  added  the 
town  meeting,  infringe  our  rights  more  than  that  law — thus,  the 
molasses  duty  and  the  late  act  estabhshing  custom-house  fees — and 
yet  no  complaint  is  made  against  them. 

*  Drake,  op.  cit.,  p.  273. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


267 


that  the  agitation  against  the  act  was  "  fomented,  if  not  ori- 
ginated, principally  by  those  persons  concerned  in  the  Hol- 
land trade,"  a  trade  "  much  more  practised  in  the  Southern 
Governments  than  this  way."  ^  "A  Citizen"  conceded  cau- 
tiously in  the  Nczv  York  Journal  of  November  11,  1773, 
that  "  we  have  not  been  hitherto  altogether  at  the  mercy  of 
those  monopolists  [the  East  India  Company],  because  it 
has  been  worth  the  while  for  others  to  supply  us  with 
tea  at  a  more  reasonable  price,"  but  that  hereafter  "  if  tea 
should  be  brought  us  from  any  foreign  market,  the  East 
India  Company  might  occasionally  undersell  those  concerned 
in  it,  so  as  to  ruin  or  deter  them  from  making  many  experi- 
ments of  the  kind."  A  loyalist  writer  expressed  the  same 
thought  from  a  different  point  of  view  when  he  affirmed  to 
the  people  of  New  York  that  every  measure  of  the  radical 
cabal 

is  an  undoubted  proof  that  not  your  liberties  but  their  private 
interest  is  the  object.  To  create  an  odium  against  the  British 
company  is  the  main  point  at  which  they  have  laboured.  They 
have  too  richly  experienced  the  fruits  which  may  be  reaped 
from  a  contraband  trade  ...  to  relinquish  them  to  others  with- 
out a  struggle. - 

One  of  the  tea  commissioners  at  New  York  declared  that 
"  the  introduction  of  the  East  India  Company's  tea  is  vio- 
lently opposed  here  by  a  set  of  men  who  shamefully  live  by 
monopolizing  tea  in  the  smuggling  way."  ^  Governor  Tryon 
and  others  entertained  a  similar  opinion.* 

1  Drake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  261-262. 

*A'.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Nov.  18,  1773. 

'Abram  Lott  to  W.  Kelly,  Nov.  5,  i773;  Drake,  op.  cit.,  p.  269. 

*  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  400,  408.  A  similar  opinion  was 
shared  by  Haldimand,  at  New  York,  Brit.  Papers  ("Sparks  Mss."), 
vol.  iii,  p.  17s;  and  by  the  anonymous  authors  of  letters  in  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  i,  p.  302  n.,  and  of  an  address  in  ibid.,  p.  642. 


268  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

To  rob  the  new  law  of  the  appeal  it  held  for  the  pocket- 
books  of  the  tea  purchasers,  the  writers  impeached  the  good 
faith  of  the  company  in  undercutting  prices.  "  Reclusus  " 
predicted  confidently  that  "  tho'  the  first  Teas  may  be  sold 
at  a  low  Rate  to  make  a  popular  Entry,  yet  when  this  mode 
of  receiving  Tea  is  well  established,  they,  as  all  other  Mono- 
polists do,  will  meditate  a  greater  profit  on  their  Goods,  and 
set  them  up  at  what  Price  they  please."  ^  "  Hampden  " 
wrote : 

Nor  let  it  be  said,  to  cajole  the  poor,  that  this  importation  of 
tea  will  lower  the  price  of  it.  Is  any  temporary  abatement  of 
that  to  be  weighed  in  the  balance  with  the  permanent  loss  that 
will  attend  the  sole  monopoly  of  it  in  future,  which  will  enable 
them  abundantly  to  reimburse  themselves  by  raising  the  price 
as  high  as  their  known  avarice  may  dictate  ?  ^ 

In  the  words  of  "  Mucius," 

Every  puchaser  must  be  at  their  mercy  .  .  .  The  India  Com- 
pany would  not  undertake  to  pay  the  duty  in  England  or  Amer- 
ica— pay  enormous  fees  to  Commissioners  &c  &c  unless  they 
were  well  assured  that  the  Americans  would  in  the  end  reim- 
burse them  for  every  expence  their  unreasonable  project  should 
bring  along  with  it.^  *)       ,-    ciJ— 

NDie  writers  sought  to  show  that  the  present  project  opthe 
East  India  Company  was  the  entering  wedge  for  larger 
and  more  ambitious  undertakings  calculated  to  undermine 
the  colonial  mercantile  worldy  Their  opinion  was  based  on 
the  fact  that,  in  addition  to  the  article  of  tea,  the  East  India 
Company  imported  into  England  vast  quantities  of  silks, 

'  Boston  Eve.  Post,  Oct.  i8,  1773.     Vide  also  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol, 
vi,  p.  452. 

'iV.  Y.  Journal,  Oct.  28,  1773. 

'Pa.  Packet,  Nov.  i,  1773. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  269 

calicoes  and  other  fabrics,  spices,  drugs  and  chinaware,  all 
commodities  of  staple  demand;  and  on  their  fear  that  the 
success  of  the  present  venture  would  result  in  an  extension 
of  the  same  principle  to  the  sale  of  the  other  articles.  Per- 
haps no  argument  had  greater  weight  than  this ;  nor,  indeed, 
was  such  a  development  beyond  the  range  of  possibility. \^ 

If  they  succeed   in  their  present  experiment  with  tea, 
argued  "A  Mechanic," 

they  will  send  their  own  Factors  and  Creatures,  establish 
Houses  among  US,  Ship  US  all  other  East-India  Goods ;  and, 
in  order  to  full  freight  their  Ships,  take  in  other  Kind  of  Goods 
at  under  Freight,  or  (more  probably)  ship  them  on  their  own 
Accounts  to  their  own  Factors,  and  undersell  our  Merchants, 
till  they  monopolize  the  whole  Trade.  Thus  our  Merchants  are 
ruined.  Ship  Building  ceases.  They  will  then  sell  Goods  at 
any  exorbitant  Price.  Our  Artificers  will  be  unemployed,  and 
every  Tradesman  will  groan  under  dire  Oppression. - 

"  Hampden  "  warned  the  New  Yorkers  : 

If  you  receive  the  portion  [of  tea]  designed  for  this  city,  you 
will  in  future  have  an  India  warehouse  here ;  and  the  trade  of 
all  the  commodities  of  that  country  will  be  lost  to  your  mer- 

*  In  a  letter  of  Oct.  5,  1773  to  Thomas  Walpole,  Thomas  Wharton  pro- 
posed the  extension  of  the  East  India  Company's  trade,  under  the  new 
regulations,  to  include  pepper,  spices  and  silks.  Drake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  274- 
275.  Dickinson,  in  an  essay  in  July  I774,  quoted  a  contemporary  writer 
in  England  as  proposing  "  that  the  Government,  through  the  means  of  a 
few  merchants  acquainted  with  the  American  trade  .  .  .  ,  should  estab- 
lish factors  at  Boston,  New- York,  and  a  few  other  ports,  for  the  sale 
of  such  cargoes  of  British  manufactures  as  should  be  consigned  to  them ; 
and  to  consist  of  such  particularly  as  were  most  manufactured  in  the 
Province,  with  directions  immediately  and  continually  to  undersell  all 
such  Colony  manufactures."  4  Am.  Archives,  vol.  i,  p.  575  n.  The 
probabiHty  of  some  such  scheme  was  also  contemplated  by  "An  Ameri- 
can Watchman"  in  Pinkney's  Va.  Gazette,  Jan.  26,  1775. 

*  Pa.  Gazette,  Dec.  8,  1773.  Vide  also  a  letter  in  Pa.  Chron.,  Nov.  15, 
1772,  and  "A  Countryman"  in  Pa.  Packet,  Oct.  18,  1773. 


270 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


chants  and  be  carried  on  by  the  company,  which  will  be  an  im- 
mense loss  to  the  colony.^ 

A  customs  commissioner  writing  to  the  home  govern- 
ment from  Boston  noted  that  it  was  pretended  that  "  when 
once  the  East  India  Company  has  established  Warehouses 
for  the  Sale  of  Tea,  all  other  articles  commonly  imported 
from  the  East  Indies  and  Saleable  in  America,  will  be  sent 
tjaere  by  the  Company,"  ^ 

X.  Thatitlie  fear  of  monopoly  was  the  mainspring  of  Ameri- 
•^  can  opposition*  is  further  evidenced  by  the  trend  of  discus- 
sion in  the  early  weeks  before  it  was  known  definitely  that 
the  new  law  provided  for  the  retention  of  the  threepenny 
import  duty.  The  report  gained  currency  that  the  tea 
shipped  by  the  East  India  Company  was  to  be  introduced 
free  of  the  American  import  duty.  This  understanding 
was  based  upon  a  misreading  of  that  portion  of  the  statute 
which  empowered  the  company  "  to  export  such  tea  to  any 
of  the  British  colonies  or  plantations  in  America,  or  to  for- 
eign parts,  discharged  from  the  payment  of  any  customs  or 
duties  whatsoever,  anything  in  the  said  recited  act,  or  any 
other  act,  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."  ^  Had  this 
been  a  correct  interpretation  of  the  law,  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  the  course  of  American  opposition  would  have 
developed  unchanged  and  the  tea  would  then  have  been 
dumped  into  the  Atlantic  as  an  undisguised  and  unmixed 
protest  against  a  grasping  trading  monopoly. 

*  N.  Y.  Journal,  Oct.  28,  1773. 

*  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol.  xxiv,  no.  2029,  p.  4.  Vide  also  Hancock's 
view,  expressed  in  the  annual  oration  of  Mar.  5,  1774.  /  M.  H.  S. 
Procs.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  187. 

^  Unsigned  article  in  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Oct.  28,  1773.  Vide  also 
"  Poplicola,"  ibid.,  Nov.  18,  1773.  "A  construction  strongly  implied  by 
the  liberty  granted  to  export  the  same  Commodity  to  foreign  Countries 
free  of  Duties,"  wrote  Tryon  to  Dartmouth,  Nov.  3,  1773.  N.  Y.  Col. 
Docs.,  vol."  viii,  pp.  400-401. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


271 


Governor  Tryon,  of  New  York,  in  a  letter  to  the  home 
government  made  reference  to  the  animated  discussion  over 
the  question ;  and  added : 


^ 


If  the  Tea  comes  free  of  every  duty,  I  understand  it  is  then  to 
be  considered  as  a  Monopoly  of  the  East  India  Company  in 
America;  a  monopoly  of  dangerous  tendency,  it  is  said,  to 
American  liberties  ...  So  that  let  the  Tea  appear  free  or  not 
free  of  Duty  those  who  carry  on  the  illicit  Trade  will  raise 
objections,  if  possible,  to  its  being  brought  on  shore  and  sold.^ 

Tryon's  analysis  of  the  situation  is  confirmed  by  the  tone 
of  newspaper  discussion  during  the  weeks  of  uncertainty. 

Even  if  the  tea  bears  no  duty,  wrote  a  New  Yorker  to  his 
friend  in  Philadelphia,  "  would  not  the  opening  of  an  East- 
India  House  in  America  encourage  all  the  great  Companies 
in  Great  Britain  to  do  the  same?  If  so,  have  we  a  single 
chance  of  being  any  Thing  but  Hewers  of  Wood  and  Draw- 
ers of  Waters  to  them?  The  East  Indians  are  a  proof  of 
this."  ^  In  like  spirit,  "A  Mechanic  "  declared  scornfully 
that  it  made  no  difference  whether  the  tea  was  dutied  or 
not.  "  Is  it  not  a  gross  and  daring  insult,  to  pilfer  the 
trade  from  the  Americans,  and  lodge  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
East  India  Company?"  he  queried.  "It  will  first  most 
sensibly  affect  the  Merchants ;  but  it  will  also  ve^y  materially 
affect  .  .  .  every  Member  of  the  Community."  p> 

In  the  vigorous  words  of  "A  Citizen,"  "  Whether  the  duty 
on  tea  is  taken  off  or  not,  the  East  India  Company's  scheme 
has  too  dangerous  an  aspect  for  us  to  permit  an  experiment 
to  be  made  of  it."     In  the  same  letter  he  said : 

The  scheme  appears  too  big  with  mischievous  consequences 

^  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  vol.  viii,  p.  400. 
*Fo.  Chron.,  Nov.  15,  1773. 
'  Pa.  Gazette,  Dec.  8,  1773. 


2^2 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


and  dangers  to  America,  [even  if  we  consider  it  only]  ...  as  it 
may  create  a  monopoly ;  or,  as  it  may  introduce  a  monster,  too 
powerful  for  us  to  control,  or  contend  with,  and  too  rapacious 
and  destructive,  to  be  trusted,  or  even  seen  without  horror,  that 
may  be  able  to  devour  ever>'  branch  of  our  commerce,  drain 
^  us  of  all  our  property  and  substance,  and  wantonly  leave  us  to 
perish  by  thousands  .  .  .^ 

All  ambiguity  as  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  statute  was 
removed  by  the  lucid  pen  of  John  Dickinson  and  others  and 
finally  by  a  reported  opinion  of  His  Alajesty's  attorney  and 
solicitor  general.  It  was  shown,  by  careful  analysis  of  the 
act,  that  the  East  India  Company  were  merely  exempted 
from  the  payment  of  all  duties  and  customs  chargeable  in 
England  and  that  the  American  import  duty  remained  as 
before.-  Even  after  this  time,  the  New  Yorkers  were  afraid 
that  Parliament  might  heed  the  American  protest  against 
taxation  and  proceed  to  repeal  the  threepenny  duty  without 
rescinding  the  monopoly  rights  granted  to  the  East  India 
Company.  In  a  remarkable  letter  written  more  than  two 
months  after  the  Boston  Tea  Party,  the  New  York  Commit- 
tee of  Correspondence  asserted  frankly : 

Should  the  Revenue  Act  be  repealed  this  Session  of  Parliament, 
as  the  East  India  Company  by  the  x\ct  passed  the  last  Session 
have  liberty  to  export  their  own  Tea,  which  is  an  advantage 
they  never  had  before  and  which  their  distress  will  certainly 
induce  them  to  embrace,  we  consider  such  an  event  as  dan- 
gerous to  our  Commerce,  as  the  execution  of  the  Revenue  Act 
would  be  to  our  Liberties.  For  as  no  ^Merchant  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  certain  opperation  of  a  Alonopoly  on  that 

^  A",  y.  Journal,  Nov.  4,  1773. 

*  "  Y.  Z."  (Dickinson)  in  Pa.  Journal,  Xov.  3,  1773,  also  in  Dickinson's 
Writings  (Ford,  P.  L.,  ed.),  vol.  i,  pp.  457-458;  '"Cato  "  and  "A  Trades- 
man" in  iV.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Nov.  4,  18,  1773;  "A  Citizen"  in  N.  Y.  Journal, 
Nov.  4.  1773 ;  letter  in  Pa.  Journal,  Nov.  10.  1773. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


273 


or  this  side  the  \\^ater  will  send  out  or  order  Tea  to  America 
when  those  who  have  it  at  first  hand  send  to  the  same  market, 
the  Company  will  have  the  whole  supply  in  their  hands.  Hence 
it  will  necessarily  follow  that  we  shall  ultimately  be  at  their 
Mercy  to  extort  from  us  what  price  they  please  for  their  Tea. 
And  when  they  find  their  success  in  this  Article,  they  will 
obtain  liberty  to  export  their  Spices,  Silk  etc.  .  .  .  And  there- 
fore we  have  had  it  long  in  contemplation  to  endeavor  to  get 
an  Agreement  signed  not  to  purchase  any  English  tea  till  so 
much  of  the  Act  passed  the  last  session  of  Parliament  enabling 
the  Company  to  ship  their  Tea  to  America  be  repealed.  Noth- 
ing short  of  this  will  prevent  its  being  sent  on  their  account.^ 

\ln  view  of  the  subordinate  place  which  the  argument  of 
violated  rights  held  in  the  minds  of  the  propagandists,  pro-  ^ 
tests  against  "  taxation  without  representation  "  were  made 
chiefly  for  rhetorical  effect."  >  This  may  be  shown  by  a 
few  examples.  In  a  letter  written  by  a  committee  of  the 
Massachusetts  Assembly  after  the  Boston  Tea  Party,  the 
new  act  was  characterized  as  "  introductive  of  monopolies 
which,  besides  the  train  of  eyjls  that  attend  them  in  a  com- 
mercial view,  are  forever  dangerous  to  public  liberty,"  also 
as  "  pregnant  with  new  grievances,  paving  the  way  to 
further  impositions,  and  in  its  consequences  threatening 
the  final  destruction  of  liberties."  ^\"A  Consistent  Patriot" 

1  Letter  to  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence,  Feb.  28,  1774;  Bos. 
Cow.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  742-746.  The  letter  added  that  the  committee 
would  "  feel  the  pulse "  of  the  Philadelphia  Committee  and  the  other 
committees  to  the  southward  and  requested  the  Boston  Committee  to 
urge  the  matter  on  the  committees  at  Rhode  Island,  Philadelphia  and 
Qiarleston,  S.  C.     I  have  found  no  replies  to  the  New  York  proposal. 

"^  The  smugglers  and  dissatisfied  merchants  "  made  a  notable  stalking 
horse  of  the  word  LIBERTY,"  declared  "A  Tradesman  of  Philadel- 
phia," "  and  many  well  meaning  persons  were  duped  by  the  specious 
colouring  of  their  sinister  zeal."     Pa.  Journal,  Aug.  17,  1774. 

'  Letter  of  Dec.  21,  1773,  to  Arthur  Lee,  signed  by  Thomas  Cushing, 
Samuel  Adams,  John  Hancock  and  William  Phillips;  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls., 
vol.  iv,  p.  377. 


274  ^-^-E  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Stigmatized  the  act  as  "  a  plan  not  only  destructive  to  trade, 
in  which  we  are  all  so  deeply  interested  but  .  .  .  designed 
to  promote  and  encrease  a  revenue  extorted  from  us  against 
our  consent."  ^  The  new  statute,  declared  "  Causidicus/'^ 
was  a  case  of 

taxation  without  consent  and  monopoly  of  trade  establishing 
itself  together.  .  .  .  Let  the  trade  be  monopolized  in  particular 
hands  or  companies,  and  the  privileges  of  these  companies  lye 
totally  at  the  mercy  of  a  British  ministry  and  how  soon  will 
that  ministry  command  all  the  power  and  property  of  the 
empire  ?  ^ 

Even  the  members  of  the  First  Continental  Congress  treated 
the  matter  from  an  unchanged  viewpoint  when  they  declared, 
on  October  21,  1774,  in  their  Memorial  to  the  Inhabitants  of 
the  British  Colonies  that  "Administration  .  .  .  entered  into 
a  monopolizing  combination  with  the  East  India  Company, 
to  send  to  this  Continent  vast  quantities  of  Tea,  an  article 
on  which  a  Duty  was  laid.  .  .  ."  ^ 

Protests  against  the  tea  act  as  a  violation  of  a  theoretical 
right  caused  a  tea  commissioner  at  Boston  to  remark  skep- 
tically : 

But  while  there  is  such  a  vast  quantity  [of  tea]  imported  every 
Year,  by  so  considerable  a  number  of  persons  who  all  pay  the 
duty  thereof  on  its  arrival,  I  do  not  see  why  every  importer, 
nay  every  consumer  thereof,  do  not  as  much  contribute  to  en- 
force the  Tea  act  as  the  India  Company  themselves,  or  the 
persons  to  whom  they  may  think  proper  to  consign  their  Tea 
for  sale.* 

'  Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  14,  I773- 

*  Ibid.,  Nov.  4,  1773.     Vide  also  "  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,"  ibid.,  Oct. 
14,  ^773,  and  "  Scaevola"  in  Pa.  Chron.,  Oct.  11,  1773. 

*  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress  (L.  C.  edn.),  vol.  i,  p.  98- 

*  Drake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  261-262. 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY  275 

The  people  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  might,  with 
clearer  conscience,  discuss  the  tea  tax  as  an  invasion  of 
American  liberties;  but,  as  "  Z  "  pointed  out,  all  Americans 
were  guilty  of  a  glaring  inconsistency  in  denouncing  that 
trifling  duty  whilst  silently  passing  over  "  the  Articles  of 
Sugar,  Molasses,  and  Wine,  from  which  more  than  three 
quarter  parts  of  the  American  Revenue  has  and  always  will 
arise,  and  when  the  Acts  of  Parliament  imposing  Duties  on 
these  Articles  stand  on  the  same  Footing  as  that  respecting 
Tea  and  the  Moneys  collected  from  them  are  applied  to  the 
same  Purposes."  ^ 

Of  the  other  arguments  used  to  stir  up  opposition,  the 
most  interesting  was  the  attempt  to  discredit  the  present 
undertaking  of  the  East  India  Company  by  reason  of  the 
company's  notoriously  bad  record  in  India.  John  Dickin- 
son was  the  most  forceful  exponent  of  this  view  in  a  broad- 
side which  had  wide  popularity  in  both  Philadelphia  and 
New  York.  Writing  under  the  signature  of  "  Rusticus,"" 
he  declared : 

Their  conduct  in  Asia,  for  some  Years  past,  has  given  ample 
Proof,  how  little  they  regard  the  Laws  of  Nations,  the  Rights, 
Liberties,  or  Lives  of  Men.  They  have  levied  War,  excited 
Rebellions,  dethroned  Princes,  and  sacrificed  Millions  for  the 
Sake  of  Gain.  The  Revenues  of  mighty  Kingdoms  have  cen- 
tered in  their  Coffers.  And  these  not  being  sufficient  to  glut 
their  Avarice,  they  have,  by  the  most  unparalleled  Barbarities, 
Extortions  and  Monopolies,  stripped  the  miserable  Inhabitants 
of  their  Property,  and  reduced  whole  Provinces  to  Indigence 
and  Ruin.  Fifteen  hundred  Thousand,  it  is  said,  perished  by 
Famine  in  one  Year,  not  because  the  Earth  denied  its  Fruits, 
but  this  Company  and  its  Servants  engrossed  all  the  Necessar- 
ies of  Life,  and  set  them  at  so  high  a  Rate,  that  the  Poor  could 
not  purchase  them.     Thus  having  drained  the  Sources  of  that 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Oct.  25,  1773. 


276  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

immense  Wealth  .  .  .  ,  they  now,  it  seems,  cast  their  Eyes  on 
America,  as  a  new  Theatre,  whereon  to  exercise  their  Talents 
of  Rapine,  Oppression  and  Cruelty.  The  Monopoly  of  Tea, 
is,  I  dare  say,  but  a  small  Part  of  the  Plan  they  have  formed  to 
strip  us  of  our  Property.  But  thank  God,  we  are  not  Sea 
Poys,  nor  Marrattas,  but  British  Subjects,  who  are  born  to 
Liberty,  who  know  its  Worth,  and  who  prize  it  high.^ 

^;^The  hygienic  objections  to  tea  drinking,  much  agitated  at 
the  time  of  the  colonial  opposition  to  the  Townshend  duties, 
were  again  called  up.\  It  was  not  altogether  without  signi- 
ficance that  one  of  the  leading  men  to  urge  this  view  was 
Dr.  Thomas  Young,  a  physician  who  spent  more  time  in 
the  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  meditating  a  rigor- 
ous physic  for  the  body  politic  than  in  prescribing  for  private 
patients."  Dr.  Young  cited  Dr.  Tissot,  professor  of  physic 
at  Berne,  and  other  eminent  authorities,  to  prove  that  the 
introduction  of  tea  into  Europe  had  caused  the  whole  face 
of  disease  to  change,  the  prevailing  disorders  now  being 
"  spasms,  vapors,  hypochondrias,  apoplexies  of  the  serous 
kind,  palsies,  dropsies,  rheumatisms,  consumptions,  low 
nervous,  miliary  and  petechial  fevers."  ^    "  Philo-Alethias  " 

1  Writings,  vol.  i,  pp.  459-463.  According  to  "A  Mechanic,"  "  The 
East- India  Company,  if  once  they  get  Footing  .  .  .  ,  will  leave  no  Stone 
unturned  to  become  your  Masters.  .  .  .  They  themselves  are  well  versed 
in  Tyranny,  Plunder,  Oppression  and  Bloodshed "  and  so  on.  Pa. 
Gazette,  Dec.  8,  1773.  A  town  meeting  at  Windham,  Conn.,  on  June  23, 
1774,  denounced  the  East  India  Company,  declaring:  "Let  the  Spanish 
barbarities  in  Mexico  and  the  name  of  a  Cortez  be  sunk  in  everlasting 
oblivion,  while  such  more  recent,  superior  cruelties  bear  away  the  palm, 
in  the  history  of  their  rapine  and  cruelty."  Mass.  Spy,  July  7,  1774. 
Vide  also  "A.  Z."  in  Pa.  Journal,  Oct.  20,  1773,  and  "Hampden"  in 
N.  Y.  Journal,  Oct.  28,  I773- 

2  Edes,  H.  H.,  "  Dr.  Thomas  Young,"  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  xi, 
pp.  2-54- 

^Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Oct.  25,  1773.  P'ide  also  his  article  in  the  Mass. 
Spy,  Dec.  30,  1773- 


COLONIAL  PROSPERITY 


277 


added  "  the  great  Boerhaave  "  and  Dr.  Cullen,  professor  of 
medicine  at  Edinburgh,  to  the  authorities  already  noted,  and 
suggested  seventeen  possible  substitutes,  beneficial  in  their 
effects,  that  could  be  brewed  from  plants  of  American 
ofrowth.^     "An  old  Mechanic"  recalled  with  a  sio:h 


& 


the  time  when  Tea  was  not  used,  nor  scarcely  known  amongst 
us,  and  yet  people  seemed  at  that  time  of  day  to  be  happier, 
and  to  enjoy  more  health  in  general  than  they  do  now.  [Since 
those  days,  a  sad  change  has  occurred]  ...  we  must  be  every 
day  bringing  in  some  new-fangled  thing  or  other  from  abroad, 
till  we  are  really  become  a  luxurious  people.  No  matter  how 
ugly  and  deformed  a  garment  is ;  nor  how  insipid  or  tasteless, 
or  prejudicial  to  our  healths  an  eatable  or  drinkable  is,  we  must 
have  it,  if  it  is  the  fashion.- 

"A  Woman's  "  intuition  suggested  the  fitting  retort  to 
these  alarmist  writings  when  she  remarked  scornfully  that 
no  one  had  heard  of  these  "  scarecrow  stories  "  until  tea 
had  become  a  political  issue.^  The  little  town  of  Hinsdale. 
N.  H.,  undertook  to  expose  the  hypocrisy  of  the  health 
advocates  in  a  different  way.  Assembled  in  town  meeting, 
the  inhabitants  resolved  unanimously  that  "  the  Conse- 
quences attending  the  use  of  New  England  Rum  are  much 
more  pernicious  to  Society  than  the  Consequences  attend- 
ing the  use  of  Tea,"  destroying  "  the  Lives  and  Liberties 
of  Thousands  where  Tea  hath  or  ever  will  One,"  and  that 
Hinsdale  would  banish  the  use  of  tea  when  those  towns  and 
persons  who  declaimed  so  loudly  against  tea  should  abstain 
from  the  use  of  rum.* 

^  Pa.  Journal,  Dec.  22,  1773;  also  Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  27,  1774. 
^  Pa.  Joiirn.,  Oct.  20,  1773. 
'  Mass.  Spy,  Dec.  23,  1773. 
*  N.  H.  Gazette,  June  17.  I774- 


278  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

^  If  the  colonists  stood  ready  to  back  their  words  with 
resolute  measures,  it  began  to  appear  that  tea  would  soon  be 
added  to  molasses  and  wine  as  among  those  essential  ingre- 
dients which  the  historian  of  later  days,  in  imitation  of 
John  Adams,  might  record  as  entering  into  American  inde- 
pendenceX 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Struggle  with  the  East  India  Company 
(1773-1774) 

Due  to  the  animated  discussion,  public  opinion  was  well 
fertilized  by  the  time  that  news  reached  America  that  the 
shipments  of  the  East  India  Company  were  on  their  way 
across  th«  Atlantic.  The  thought  of  the  newspaper  writers 
was  quickly  translated  into  action  by  mass  meetings  in  the 
great  trading  towns.  <nrhese  meetings  spoke  the  crisp  ver- 
nacular of  popular  rights  rather  than  the  colorless  phrases 
of  mercantile  profit  and  loss;  but  their  activities  werelf 
directed  by  merchants  wljo  believed  that  their  business  ex-ll 
istence  was  jeopardized,  ^n  the  great  trading  towns,  the 
chief  object  was  to  form  combinations  to  prevent  the  land- 
ing of  the  tea,  it  being  well  understood  that  the  only  way 
to  prevent  consumers  from  partaking  of  the  forbidden  herb 
was  to  remove  the  temptation.^ 

The  first  public  meeting  of  protest  was  held  at  Philadel- 
phia, partly  because  the  merchant-aristocracy  was  excep- 
tionally strong  there,  partly  because  the  workingmen  had 
recently  developed  a  sense  of  their  collective  importance, 
and,  perhaps,  partly  also  because  the  city  had  a  direct 
acquaintance  with  the  unscrupulous  methods  of  the  East 
India  Company.  It  was  none  other  than  Charles  Thomson 
who  declared  afterward  that/f*ftTie  merchants  led  the  people 
into  an  oppositioM  to  the  importation  of  the  East  India 

1  Annual  Register  {1774),  p.  48;  Galloway,  Reflections,  p.  58. 

279 


28o  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Company's  tea7'  ^  CThe  workingmen  had  emerged  from  the 
-^  ,  struggle  against  the  Townshend  duties  conscious  for  the 
I  first  time  of  their  power  in  the  community.  -  At  the  first 
\^  election  after  the  termination  of  the  non-importation,  an 
article,  signed  by  "A  Brother  Chip,"  called  upon  the  me- 
chanics and  tradesmen  to  unite  in  support  of  one  or  two 
mechanics  as  members  of  the  assembly.'  This  plan  appar- 
ently met  with  success  in  this  and  the  succeeding  annual 
election;  and  the  workingmen  then  effected  a  formal  secret 
organization,  under  the  significant  name  of  "  Patriotic 
Society,"  for  the  purpose  of  voting  en  bloc  at  elections.^ 
As  for  the  local  bitterness  toward  the  East  India  Company, 
only  as  recently  as  two  years  before,  the  first  m.anufacture 
of  chinaware  had  been  begun  in  Pennsylvania ;  immediately 
the  price  of  imported  china  fell  five  shillings  in  the  pound, 
through  the  reputed  manipulation  of  that  company;  and 
the  new  manufacture  survived  only  through  appeals  for 
popular  support.* 

^  Stille,  Life  of  Dickinson,  p.  345.  Vide  also  Reed,  W.  B.,  Life  and 
Correspondence  of  Joseph  Reed  (Philadelphia,  1847),  vol.  i,  pp.  54-55- 

'  The  writer  pointed  out  that  the  usual  custom  was  for  a  coterie  of 
leading  men  to  nominate  a  ticket  of  candidates  without  consulting  the 
mechanics,  who  formed  the  great  mass  of  the  population  of  the  city, 
and  that  "  the  Assembly  of  late  Years  has  been  chiefly  composed  of 
Merchants,  Lawyers  and  Millers  (or  Farmers)  .  .  ."  The  mechanics 
were  held  up  as  a  class  with  interests  which  should  have  representation  ; 
and  it  was  declared  "  the  greatest  Imprudence  to  elect  Men  of  enor- 
mous Estates."  who  thus  added  political  power  to  the  influence  of  their 
wealth.    Pa.  Gaz.,  Sept.  27,  1770. 

^  Ibid.,  Aug.  19,  1772. 

* "  The  East-India  Company  would  avail  themselves  of  these  Foibles 
of  Humanity,"  said  this  appeal;  "if  they  could  demoHsh  one  noted 
Manufacture,  they  would  certainly  chp  twenty  Years  from  the  Growth 
of  American  Improvements ;  and  what  they  lost  in  the  present  and  fol- 
lowing Year  by  lowering  their  Prices,  they  would  gain  in  succeeding 
Years,  with  sufficient  Interest."    Ibid.,  Aug.  i,  1771. 


_     STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      28 t 

xShortly  after  news  of  the  new  tea  statute  reached  Phila- 
de^hia,  the  inhabitants  met  at  the  State  House  and  adopted 
a  set  of  eight  resolutions  which  became  the  model  for 
similar  votes  in  other  citiesN^The  tea  duty  was  branded  as 
taxation  without  representation,  and  the  shipment  of  teas 
by  the  East  India  Company  was  denominated  an  open  at- 
tempt to  enforce  the  ministerial  plan.  Anyone  in  any  wise 
countenancing  this  plan  was  denounced  as  "  an  enemy  to 
his  country."  Finally,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  wait 
on  the  tea  consignees  and  request  them  to  resign.^  With 
some  natural  reluctance,  these  latter  acquiesced.  A  second 
public  meeting  was  then  held,  which  gave  their  undivided 
voice  against  the  entry  of  the  tea  ship  upon  its  arrival  at 
the  custom  house  and  against  the  landing  of  the  tea." 
Sometime  later,  dire  threats  in  the  form  of  broadsides 
issued  forth  to  the  Delaware  pilots,  asking  them  to  prevent 
the  arrival  of  the  tea  ship  or,  if  that  were  impossible,  to 
give  the  merchants  timely  notice  of  the  event. ^  In  this 
posture  affairs  remained  for  the  time. 

At  Boston  the  course  of  opposition  assumed  a  somewhat 
different  aspect  because  of  the  peculiar  situation  of  things 
at  that  port.  As  the  seat  of  the  Customs  Board  and  the 
apex  of  the  revenue  system  of  the  continent,  there  were, 
from  the  outset,  grave  possibilities  of  friction  and  violence 
at  Boston,  although  an  executive  bent  upon  conciliation 
might  have  avoided  disaster.  Governor  Hutchinson  was 
not  now  such  a  man,  notwithstanding  his  moderation 
during  non-importation  times  and  his  yielding  to  the  pop- 
ular demand  in  withdrawing  the  troops  after  the  Massacre. 
No  doubt  he  was  led  to  overestimate  the  influence  of  the 

1  October  16,  1773.     Pa.  Packet,  Oct.  18,  1773. 

'  Pa.  Chron.,  Jan.  3,  1774. 

'  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xv,  pp.  390-391  ;  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Dec.  li  1773. 


282  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

conservative  elements  in  the  community  by  reason  of  the 
tranquilHty  of  recent  years ;  ^  but  he  had  other  reasons  for 
firmness.  Among  the  beneficiaries  of  the  new  law  at  Bos- 
ton were  his  sons,  Thomas  and  Elisha,  and  his  nephew, 
Richard  Clarke.  He  himself,  as  his  correspondence  shows, 
acted  as  business  mentor  to  his  sons ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
he  was  also  financially  interested  in  the  firm.  At  any  rate, 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  writing  long  letters  to  William  Pal- 
mer, the  great  tea  merchant,  inquiring  about  the  tea  market 
at  London,  ordering  shipments  of  the  herb  for  the  firm,  and 
dickering  about  the  prices  and  quality  of  the  teas  sent." 
His  personal  interest  in  the  treatment  of  the  tea,  the  landing 
of  which  some  people  in  Boston  were  determined  to  pre- 
vent, could  not  have  been  without  effect  on  the  bold  unyield- 
ing course  he  adopted  toward  the  opposition. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  recount  the  oft-repeated  tale 
of  the  tea  destruction  at  Boston.  The  story  need  not  be  re- 
told until  some  skilled  detective  of  historical  research  has 
brought  to  light  such  elusive  facts  as  the  transactions  of  the 
radicals  at  the  home  of  Edes,  publisher  of  the  Boston  Ga- 
zette; the  whispered  conferences  of  the  more  radical  mer- 

*  Thus,  Hutchinson  wrote  to  the  Directors  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. Dec.  19,  1773:  "As  double  the  quantity  ©f  Tea  proposed  to  be 
ship'd  by  Company  had  been  imported  in  a  year  and  the  duty  paid 
without  any  disturbance,  I  flattered  myself  for  several  months  after  I 
first  heard  of  the  intentions  to  ship  on  account  of  that  Company  that  I 
should  find  no  more  difficulties  than  upon  Teas  [which]  have  been 
ship'd  by  private  merchants."    Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  597-598. 

^  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxv,  pp.  200,  528,  542;  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  203,  206-207, 
234,  274,  317,  413,  460,  483.  Bancroft  was  aware  of  Hutchinson's  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  sale  of  the  teas:  History  of  U.  S.  (1876),  vol.  vi, 
pp.  173,  174,  17s,  183,  271.  Vide  also  Barry,  J.  S.,  History  of  Massa- 
chusetts (Boston,  1855-1857),  vol.  ii,  p.  467.  Governor  Hutchinson  was 
criticised  by  a  speaker  in  ParHament  in  1774  for  having  permitted  his 
sons  to  be  appointed  consignees.  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvii,  p. 
1209.  Besides  those  named,  the  Boston  consignees  were  Benjamin 
Faneuil,  Jr.,  and  Joshua  \\'inslow. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      283 

chants  in  their  counting-rooms;  the  infinite  craft  and  re- 
sourcefulness of  the  deiis  ex  machina,  Sam  Adams.  -i\.dams 
had  his  long  awaited  opportunity.  His  effort  to  foster  a 
continuous  discontent  throughout  the  province  had  failed 
of  success  because  it  lacked  a  substantial  issue  and  the 
backing  of  the  business  classes.  The  opposition  to  the  East 
India  Company  received  a  wide  support  from  the  mer- 
chants ;  the  clear  inference  from  his  course  of  action  is  that 
he  designed  to  utilize  this  discontent  to  drive  the  populace 
to  extreme  measures,  thereby  to  commit  the  province  irre- 
vocably to  the  cause  of  revolution  and  independence. \.'> 

Several  features  of  the  Boston  transactions  need  to  be 
noted.^  From  the  beginning,  the  merchants  as  a  class  joined 
in  the  popular  demand  for  the  resignation  of  the  consignees 
and  against  the  landing  of  the  tea.  Their  vehicle  of  action 
was  a  legal  gathering  of  the  town;  further  than  that  the 
majority  of  them,  at  the  beginning,  had  no  desire  to  go: 
popular  tumult  and  the  destruction  of  life  and  property 
were  not  normally  in  their  program  to  secure  relief  from  a 
commercial  grievance.^  <Q^he  effort,  therefore,  of  the  bulk 
of  the  merchant  class  was,  on  the  one  hand,  to  give  effective 
expression  to  the  popular  will  through  the  town  meeting; 
on  the  other  hand,  to  restrain  or  prevent  mob  outrages^ 
They  were  outmaneuvered  by  the  strategy  of  Adams  ami 
the  obstinacy  of  Hutchinson. 

Almost  a  month  before  the  arrival  of  the  first  of  the  tea- 

*  Cf.  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  439-440. 

'  The  principal  documents  relative  to  the  tea  episode  may  be  found  in : 
Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1770-1777') ;  i  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  iSS-183; 
vol.  XX,  pp.  10-17;  Col.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  78-89;  Boston 
newspapers,  Nov.  and  Dec;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  452-459. 

'  Referring  to  "  the  greater  part  of  the  merchants,"  Hutchinson  wrote 
on  Nov.  15,  1773 :  "  though  in  general  they  declare  against  mobs  and 
violence,  yet  they  as  generally  wish  the  teas  may  not  be  imported." 
I  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  165. 


■/ 


284  ^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

/ships,  a  mob  gathered  under  Liberty  Tree  to  witness  the 
consignees  resign  their  commissions ;  and  when  they  found 
they  were  to  be  cheated  out  of  their  performance,  they 
stormed  the  store  of  Richard  Clarke  &  Sons  and  were 
driven  off  only  with  great  difficulty  by  the  consignees  and 

v^  their  friends.  It  was  this  exhibition  of  violence  which  ap- 
parently convinced  the  more  substantial  classes  that  further 
developments  should  be  under  the  visible  authority  of  the 

^town  meeting.  Accordingly,  two  days  later,  on  November 
5  and  6,  a  town  meeting  assembled  over  which  John  Han- 
cock presided  as  moderator.  The  four  hundred  tradesmen 
among  those  present  took  occasion  to  disavow  unanimously 
their  authorship  of  a  handbill,  thrown  about  Faneuil  Hall, 
which  accused  the  merchants  of  fomenting  discontent  for 
purposes  of  self-aggrandizement.  The  meeting  adopted  the 
Philadelphia  resolutions  and  further  voted  their  expecta- 
tion that  no  merchant  should  thereafter  import  any  dutied 
tea.  A  committee  of  the  body  was  appointed  to  secure  the 
resignation  of  the  consignees ;  but  those  gentlemen  declined 
to  comply,  upon  the  ground  that  they  did  not  yet  know 
what  obligations,  moral  or  pecuniary,  they  were  under  to 

''fulfil  their  trust.  On  the  seventeenth,  the  mob  once  more 
took  matters  into  its  own  hands  and  attacked  the  home  of 
\Richard  Clarke  with  bricks  and  stones.  Again  the  town 
meeting  was  quickly  summoned,  with  Hancock  in  the 
chair;  but  demands  upon  the  consignees  only  brought  the 
response  that  advices  from  England  now  informed  them 
that  their  friends  there  had  entered  into  engagements  in 
their  behalf  which  put  it  out  of  their  power  to  resign. 

s^dams  now  called  into  being  a  new  agency  of  the  pop- 
ular will,  which  was  destined  to  supplant  the  merchant- 
controlled  town  meeting  and  which  was  the  natural  fruit- 
age of  the  committee  of  correspondence  system.^  This  was 
a  joint  meeting  of  the  committees  of  Boston,  Dorchester,. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY 


285 


/ 


Roxbury,  Brookline  and  Cambridge,  representing  a  largely  / 
rural  and  therefore  less  conservative  constituency  than  the  "^ 
Boston  committee  alone.  This  new  body,  meeting  on  No- 
vember 22,  resolved  unanimously  "  to  use  their  Joint  influ- 
ence to  prevent  the  Landing  and  Sale  of  the  Teas  .  .  .  ," 
and  the  Boston  committee  was  instructed  to  arouse  all  the 
towns  to  an  "  immediate  and  effectual  opposition." 

The  first  tea  ship,  the  Dartmouth,  made  its  appearance 
in  the  harbor  on  Saturday,  November  27,  the  other  two 
arriving  some  days  later.  This  was  the  signal  for  the  next 
progressive  step  in  the  development  of  the  radical  organ- 
ization —^'di  meeting  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns 
represented  in  the  joint  committee.  It  was  this  irrespon- 
sible mass-gathering  of  inhabitants  of  Boston  and  the 
nearby  towns  that  now  assumed  direction  of  events,  the 
town  meeting  being  entirely  superseded.l-^  The  mass  meet- 
ing sat  through  Monday  and  Tuesday  and,  because  of  great 
numbers,  adjourned  from  Faneuil  Hall  to  Old  South  Meet- 
ing House."  One  of  the  very  first  votes  was  a  unanimous 
resolution  that  the  tea  shipped  by  the  East  India  Company 
"  shall  not  only  be  sent  Ijack  but  that  no  duty  shall  be  paid 
thereon."  and  this  was  later  supplemented  by  a  vote  apply- 

1  "  Massachusettensis,"  writing  in  the  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  2, 
I775>  remarked  on  this  supplanting  of  the  town  meeting,  observing 
that :  "  A  body  meeting  has  great  advantages  over  a  town-meeting,  as 
no  law  has  yet  ascertained  the  qualification  of  the  voters;  each  person 
present,  of  whatever  age,  estate  or  country,  may  .  .  .  speak  or  vote  at 
such  an  assembly;  and  that  might  serve  as  a  skreen  to  the  town  where 
it  originated,  in  case  of  any  disastrous  consequence." 

*  "  A  more  determined  spirit  was  conspicuous  in  this  body  than  in 
any  of  the  former  assemblies  of  the  people.  It  was  composed  of  the 
lowest  as  well,  and  probably  in  as  great  proportions,  as  of  the  superior 
ranks  and  orders,  and  all  had  an  equal  voice.  No  eccentric  or  irreg- 
ular motions,  however,  were  suffered  to  take  place.  All  seemed  to 
have  been  the  plan  of  but  few,  it  may  be,  of  a  single  person."  Hutch- 
inson, Mass.  Bay.  vol.  iii,  p.  433. 


2S6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ing  the  same  principles  to  private  shipments  of  tea.  These 
resolves  constituted  the  ultimatum  of  the  radicals,  who 
were  now  clearly  in  the  ascendant :  the  town  meeting  had 
never  gone  beyond  the  demand  that  the  tea  should  be  re- 
turned unladen.  Henceforth  the  destruction  of  the  tea  was 
inevitable,  unless  Hutchinson  should  weaken.  The  gover- 
nor gave  no  indications  of  a  faltering  resolution,  for  the 
sheriff  in  his  name  confronted  the  assemblage  with  a  proc- 
lamation commanding  them  "  to  disperse  and  to  surcease 
all  further  unlawful  proceedings;"  but  the  only  effect  was 
to  arouse  "  a  loud  and  very  general  hiss."  The  meeting 
carried  on  negotiations  with  the  consignees,  and  with  Rotch^ 
owner  of  the  Dartmouth,  but  failed  to  secure  satisfactory 
concessions.  The  meeting  adjourned  after  establishing 
watches  for  the  Dartmouth  and  the  other  tea  ships  as  they 
should  arrive.  Copies  of  the  transactions  were  sent  to 
Philadelphia  and  New  York. 

The  excitement  at  Boston  prompted  the  committees  of 
correspondence  in  other  towns  of  the  province  to  secure  the 
passage  of  resolutions,  pledging  their  support  to  Boston  and 
decreeing  the  non-importation  of  dutied  teas.^ 

Monday,  December  13,  arrived  —  the  seventeenth  day 
after  the  arrival  of  the  Dartmouth;  and  Rotch  still  lin- 
gered in  his  preparations  to  send  the  vessel  to  sea.  The 
situation  had  become  somewhat  complicated  through  the 
fact  that  the  vessel  had  been  entered  at  the  custom  house  in 
order  to  unload  drygoods  and  other  merchandise  belonging 
to  the  merchants.^  Under  a  statute  of  William  IH,  this 
entry  made  the  vessel  liable  to  seizure  at  the  end  of  twenty 

^  From  Nov.  26  to  Dec.  16,  the  following  towns  acted,  in  the  order 
named :  Cambridge,  Brookline,  Roxbury,  Charlestown,  Marblehead, 
Plymouth,  Alalden,  Gloucester,  Lexington,  Groton,  Newburyport,  Lynn 
and  Med  ford.     Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vols,  vi  and  vii,  passim. 

'  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  430  n. ;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  78. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY       2.v/ 

days  by  the  customs  officers  for  the  non-payment  of  dun. ..-- 
Affairs  had  reached  a  critical  stage.    On  Tuesday  af  term^on 
the  mass  meeting  again  assembled  and  "enjoined"  Roi 
to  demand  a  clearance  for  his  ship  at  the  custom  hcr^v 
The  plan  was  that,  in  case  of  refusal,  he  should  enter  a  {•'■  - 
test,  and  then,  securing  a  permit  from  the  governor,  pri 
ceed  to  sea.     Accompanied  by  a  committee  of  ten,  R-hi 
made  the  demand,  but  the  customs  collector  refused  -m 
answer  until  he  had  had  time  to  consult  with  his  colleagues. 
Thursday  was  the  last  of  the  twenty-day  period;  and  e .  ! 
in  the  morning  the  country  people  began  to  pour  into  1 
by  the  fifties  and  the  hundreds.     Almost  eight  thou 
people  attended  the  meeting  which  was  to  hear  the  outc 

of   the  conference.      Greatest  impatience  was  manif< 

when  they  were  told  that  a  clearance  had  been  refused  while 
the  dutiable  articles  remained  on  board.  Rotch  was  or- 
dered upon  his  peril  to  enter  a  protest  and  to  demand  of  the 
governor  a  permit  for  his  ship  to  pass  the  Castle. 

Hutchinson,  meantime,  had  not  been  idle.^  He  had  re- 
newed in  writing  the  orders  which  used  to  be  given  to  the 
commander  of  the  Castle  to  allow  no  vessel  to  pass  the 
fortress  without  a  permit;  and  a  number  of  guns  were 
loaded  in  anticipation  of  trouble.  Fearing  that  the  vessel 
might  try  to  escape  through  a  different  channel,  two  war- 
ships, which  had  been  laid  up  for  the  winter,  were,  at  his 
request,  sent  to  guard  the  passages  out  of  the  harbor.  Was 
it  a  portent  that,  on  the  very  day  the  storm  broke,  the 
armed  brig  Gaspee  should  arrive  from  Rhode  Island  for 
action?  When  Rotch  made  his  request  of  Hutchinson,  the 
governor,  feeling  his  mastery  of  the  situation,  replied  that 
he  "  could  not  give  a  pass  till  the  ship  was  cleared  by  the 

'  Hutchinson's  own  account  to  Hillsborough ;  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii, 
pp.  586-587. 


288  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Custom-House."  ^      The    waiting   assemblage    learned   the 
?  news    with    greatest    exasperation.      There    were    angry 

i/.  speeches  in  the  flickering  candle-light.     Then  Sam  Adams 

arose  to  his  feet  and  pronounced  clearly  the  talismanic 
words :  "  This  meeting  can  do  nothing  more  to  save  the 
country."  There  was  an  answering  war-whoop  out  of 
doors;  and  a  disciplined  mob,  disguised  as  Mohawk  In- 
dians, hastened  to  the  wharf,  and  with  great  expedition 
dumped  into  the  harbor  not  only  the  tea  on  board  the  Dart- 
mouth but  also  that  on  board  the  other  two  ships.  No 
other  property  was  injured;  no  person  was  harmed;  no  tea 
was  allowed  to  be  carried  away ;  and  a  great  crowd  on  the 
shore  looked  quietly  on./ 

The  mob  that  worked  silently  and  systematically  that 
night  was  evidently  no  ordinary  one.  Exhaustive  research 
many  years  later  brought  forth  a  list  of  participants;  but, 
as  very  few  of  the  men  ever  cared  to  avow  their  connection 
with  the  lawless  undertaking,  the  identity  of  the  persons 
will  never  definitely  be  known.-    However,  it  is  evident  that 

^  "  His  granting  a  pass  to  a  vessel  which  had  not  been  cleared  at  the 
custom-house,  would  have  been  a  direct  violation  of  his  oath,  by  mak- 
ing himself  an  accessary  in  the  breach  of  those  laws  which  he  had 
sworn  to  observe."  Hutchinson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  436-437.  This  is 
the  best  defense  of  Hutchinson's  action.  Vide  also  Hutchinson,  Diary 
and  Letters  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,  vol.  i,  pp.  103-104;  Mass.  Arch., 
vol.  xxvii,  p.  611.  Nevertheless,  in  the  preliminary  weeks  Hutchinson 
had  every  opportunity,  through  his  personal  relations  with  the  tea 
consignees,  to  prevent  the  situation  from  reaching  such  an  acute 
stage.  Had  the  public  mind  been  less  inflamed,  the  merchants  as  a 
class  would  never  have  lent  their  support  to  the  act  of  destruction.  In 
view  of  the  dire  consequences,  which  Hutchinson  might  very  well  have 
foreseen,  it  would  appear  that  he  should  have  stretched  his  discretion- 
ary powers  to  the  point  of  permitting  Rotch  to  depart  without  clear- 
ance. In  this  connection  it  is  worth  noting  that  Lord  Mahon  in  his 
History  of  England  (Boston,  1853-1854),  vol.  vi,  p.  2,  thought  that 
Hutchinson  was  "perhaps  unwise"  in  refusing  the  permit. 

"  Vide  Drake,   Tea  Leaves.     Cf.  Pierce,  E.  L.,  "  Recollections  as  a 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      289 

the  better  class  of  citizens  toiled  side  by  side  with  carpen- 
ters, masons,  farmers,  blacksmiths  and  barbers.  The  names 
of  fifteen  merchants  of  the  more  radical  stamp,  including 
William  Molineux  and  Henry  Bass,  have  been  included  in 
the  list ;  and  it  is  known  that  Lendall  Pitts,  brother  to  John 
Pitts,  the  selectman,  had  charge  of  one  portion  of  the  mob. 
John  Hancock  was  probably  speaking  the  truth  when  he 
disclaimed  all  ku^led^e  of  any  detail  of  the  tea  destruc- 
tion/^ButlTt  is  clear  that  many  merchants,  who  went  into 
the  movement  against  the  East  India  Company  with  the  in- 
tention of  resorting  only  to  peaceful  opposition,  were  swept 
by  the  surge  of  popular  feeling  into  measures  of  which 
their  best  judgment  disapprovedi  \Two  days  after  the  tea 
affair,  Governor  Hutchinson  described  in  some  amazement 
the  apparent  callousness  of  the  public  toward  the  destruc- 
tion of  £15,000  of  property  belonging  to  the  English  com- 
pany. The  Stamp  Act  riots  had  excited  horror  and  pity, 
he  declared,  because  the  great  loss  fell  upon  two  or  three 
individuals ;  but  now  no  pity  was  expressed  for  "  so  great 

Source  of  History,"  2  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  x,  pp.  473-480.  Drake's  list 
includes  in  names.  Contemporary  accounts  fixed  the  number  of  par- 
ticipants variously  from  50  to  200.  Hutchinson  said :  "  So  many  of  the 
actors  and  abettors  were  universally  known,  that  a  proclamation,  with 
a  reward  for  discovery,  would  have  been  ridiculed."  Mass.  Bay,  vol. 
iii,  p.  439.  Edes,  at  whose  house  the  "  Indians  "  rested  in  waiting,  was, 
according  to  his  son,  the  only  person  who  had  a  complete  list  of  par- 
ticipants; and  after  his  death  the  list  was  taken,  it  would  appear,  by 
the  merchant,  Benjamin  Austin,  as  a  paper  whose  contents  he  wished 
not  to  be  publicly  known.  Thereafter  it  disappeared.  /  M.  H.  S.  Procs., 
vol.  xii,  pp.  174-176. 

'  Brown,  John  Hancock  His  Book,  p.  178.  LoyaUst  contemporaries 
claimed  insistently  that  he  was  one  of  the  mob. 

*  Hutchinson  wrote  shortly  after  the  tea  destruction :  "All  this  time 
nobody  suspected  they  would  suffer  the  tea  to  be  destroyed,  there  being 
so  many  pien  of  property  active  at  their  meetings,  as  Hancock,  Phillips, 
Rowe,  Dennie,  and  others,  besides  the  selectmen  and  the  town  clerk 
who  was  clerk  of  all  the  meetings."    /  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  170. 


290 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


a  body  as  the  East  India  Company;  it  is  said  to  be  a  loss 
which  will  never  be  felt."  ^  .•> 

At  Philadelphia,  the  eventful  day  arrived  some  days  later 
than  at  Boston.  In  the  weeks  following  the  public  resolu- 
tions of  October  16  there  had  seemed  for  a  time  serious 
danger  that  the  workingmen  of  Philadelphia  would  sep- 
arate themselves  from  the  opposition  to  the  East  India 
Company  because  of  the  unreasonably  high  prices  which 
shopkeepers  were  demanding  for  the  smuggled  tea.  Early 
in  December,  however,  a  committee  of  investigation  was 
appointed  by  the  inhabitants;  and,  after  some  difficulty, 
they  succeeded  in  forcing  the  price  of  tea  down  to  a  level 
of  six  shillings  a  pound. ^  This  allayed  the  mutterings.  On 
Saturday  evening,  December  25,  it  was  learned  that  the 
tea  ship,  commanded  by  Captain  Ayres,  had  arrived  at 
Chester;  and  armed  by  this  forewarning,  the  vessel  was 
stopped  the  next  day  at  Gloucester  Point,  about  four  miles 
from  the  city.^  Captain  Ayres,  being  brought  ashore,  was 
made  acquainted  with  the  feeling  of  the  townsmen ;  and  he 
promised  that  he  would  go  to  sea  when  the  people  had  so 
expressed  themselves  in  public  meeting.  Upon  Monday, 
eight  thousand  people  of  all  ranks  assembled  in  the  Square,, 
and  in  spirited  resolutions  directed  Captain  Ayres  not  to 
enter  the  vessel  at  the  custom  house  but  to  depart  imme- 
diately for  England.  So  it  came  about  that,  within  six  days 
after  the  tea  ship  entered  the  Capes,  she  was  on  her  way 
out  again  with  her  cargo  undisturbed.-^ 'By  preventing  entry 

^  Mass.  Arch.,  vol.  xxvii,  p.  594.  A  fourth  tea-ship,  not  yet  arrived, 
was  cast  ashore  on  the  back  of  Cape  Cod  by  a  storm  about  this  time. 
Ibid.,  p.  587. 

'Pa.  Gas.,  Dec.  8,  1773;  also  Pa.  Citron.,  Dec.  13. 

'  The  principal  documents  relative  to  the  tea  episode  in  Philadelphia 
may  be  found  in  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xv,  pp.  385-301. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY 


291 


at  the  custom  house,  the  Philadelphians  succeeded  in  avoid- 
ing the  difficulties  which  the  Bostonians  had  f acedj  although 
thereby  Thomas  Wharton  found  himself  deprived  tempo- 
rarily of  the  use  of  a  fine  chariot  which  was  consigned  to 
him,  and  other  merchants  had  to  go  without  their  winter 
stocks/ 

The  public  meeting,  after  voting  instructions  for  Ayres's 
guidance,  resolved  their  hearty  approval  of  the  destruction 
of  the  tea  at  Boston.  The  passage  of  this  resolve  awoke 
the  only  discord  at  the  meeting,  for  the  committee,  which 
had  prepared  the  other  resolutions  in  advance,  had  rejected 
this  one  by  a  vote  of  ten  to  two.  The  tenor  of  the  resolu- 
tion was  contrary  to  the  sentiments  of  "  the  substantial 
thinking  part,"  and  had  been  carried  in  open  meeting  only 
through  the  eloquence  of  the  two  advocates  and  the  un- 
thinking enthusiasm  of  the  crowd.* 

"NAt  New  York,  as  elsewhere,  the  merchants  were  active 
in  stirring  up  opposition  to  the  East  India  Company's  ship- 
ments ;  but  ^the  development  of  events  revealed,  more 
clearly  than  elsewhere,  the  fundamental  conflict  between 
merchants  and  radicals  as  to  the  proper  mode  of  procedurep>s. 
Preparations  for  the  arrival  began  on  November  10,  when 
a  printed  notice,  signed  by  "  Legion,"  directed  the  pilots  to 
refuse  to  guide  the  tea  ship  into  the  harbor.  As  the  vessel 
was  expected  sometime  in  December,  a  committee  of  citi- 
zens exerted  pressure  upon  the  consignees  to  resign  their 

'  Pa,  Mag.,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  78-79. 

'  Wharton  to  Walpole;  Wharton,  Letter-Book  (Hist.  See.  of  Pa.),  pp. 
33-34- 

'  The  best  accounts  of  these  events  are :  the  narrative  by  "  Brutus  " 
in  .Y.  Y.  Gazetteer,  May  12,  1774,  reprinted  in  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
251-258  n. ;  and  the  modern  treatment  of  Becker,  N.  Y.  Parties,  1760- 
1776,  pp.  102- 1 1 1.  Vide  also  the  New  York  newspapers  during  this 
period. 


292  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

commissions;  and  this  they  cheerfully  did  on  December  i, 
although  meantime  an  open  threat  of  violence  had  been 
made  against  them  in  a  broadside  issued  by  the  "  Mo- 
hawks, t  It  was  clearly  necessary  to  reach  an  agreement  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  opposition  which  should  be  directed 
against  the  expected  tea  ship ;  and  for  this  purpose  a  docu- 
ment, entitled  the  "  Association ^of  the.  Sons  .of  Liberty," 
was  prepared  as  a  common  platform  for  all  classes.  This 
paper  denounced  all  persons  who  should  aid  in  the  intro- 
duction of  dutied  teas  as  enemies  to  their  country  and  de- 
clared a  boycott  against  them.  As  an  onlooker  of  the 
event  put  it,  this  document  embodied  "  the  strongest  terms 
of  opposition,  without  actual  violence  .  .  .  ,  leaving  [by 
implication]  the  use  of  force  ...  to  be  resolved  in  some 
future  time  in  case  any  emergency  might  thereafter  render 
the  measure  necessary."  ^  The  association  was  general 
enough  in  its  terms  to  be  signed  by  a  great  number  of  in- 
habitants, including  "  most  of  the  principal  lawyers,  mer- 
chants, landholders,  masters  of  ships,  and  mechanics.""^ 

The  radicals  were  content  with  the  association  as  a  be- 
ginning; and  one  of  the  ultra-radicals,  Alexander  McDou- 
gall,  assured  Sam  Adams  in  a  letter  of  December  13  that: 
"  The  worst  that  can  or  will  happen  here  is  the  landing  of 
the  Tea  and  storing  it  in  the  Fort."  '  The  boldness  of  the 
people  grew  with  the  news  of  the  early  transactions  at  Bos- 
ton ;  and  in  order  to  capitalize  the  excitement,  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  and  "  every  other  Friend  to  the  Liberties  and 
Trade  of  America  "  were  summoned  to  a  mass  meeting  on 
December  16.  Two  thousand  were  present  notwithstand- 
ing the  inclement  weather,  and  they  readily  agreed  to  the 
suggestion  of  the  radical,  John  Lamb,  that  a  committee  of 

^  "  Brutus,"  loc.  cit. 

"^  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  vi,  pp.  472-473. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      29^ 

correspondence  be  appointed' to  communicate  with  the  other 
provinces.  The  assemblage .  f  ornially ;  ratified '  the  associa- 
tion; and  when  the  mayor  appeared  with  a  proposition  from 
the  governor  that  the  tea  upon  its  arrival '  should  be  stored 
in  the  Fort  and  not  be  removed  except  at  noonday,  the  offer 
was  greeted  with  a  thrice-repeated  negative  and  indications 
of  intense  indignation.  The  radicals  had' advanced  beyond 
the  stage  of  halfway  measures.    > 

This  meeting  alarmed  the  more  conservative  merchants, 
who  saw  plainly  that  affairs  were  drifting  in '  the' direction 
of  mob  control.  Four  days  later,  a  few  persons,  among 
whom  Isaac  Low  and  Jacob  Walton  were  most  active,  cir- 
culated a  paper,  the  avowed  purpose  of  which  was.  to  pledge 
the  signers  not  to  resort  to  force  in  opposing  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  tea.  The  project  made  some  headway,  but  was 
abandoned  on  the  next  day  because  of  the  excitement 
aroused  by  the  receipt  of  news  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party.. 
From  that  moment,  as  Governor  Tryon  informed  Dart- 
mouth, all  hope  of  a  temperate  opposition  was  gone.^  The 
consignees  felt  no  uncertainty  as  to  the  peril,  and  on  De- 
cember 27  wrote  to  Captain  Lockyer,  of  the  tea-ship,  a 
letter  to  be  delivered  upon  his  arrival  at  Sandy  Hook,, 
notifying  him  of  their  resignation  and  advising  him  to  re- 
turn to  sea  ''  for  the  safety  of  your  cargo,  your  vessel,  and 
your  person  .  .  ."  "  But  the  master  of  the  tea,  ship  had 
already  heard  echoes  of  the  clamor  at  Boston  and  els'ewhere 
in  far-off  Antigua,  whither  adverse  winds  had  driven  him 
while  making  for  New  York.^    When  he  arrived  at  Sandy 

'  "  The  landing,  storing  and  safe  keeping  of  the  Tea  when,  stored 
could  be  accomplished,  but  only  under  the  protection  of  the  Point  of 
the  Bayonet  and  Muzle  of  the  Cannon  .  .  .  ,"  wrote  Tryon.  N.  Y.  Col. 
Docs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.'407-'4o8. 

*  Drake,  op.  cit.,  p.  358. 

'  Mass.  Spy,  Apr.  7,  1774. 


294 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Hook  on  Monday,  April  i8,  1774,  he  pursued  a  most  cir- 
cumspect course,  refusing  to  betake  himself  personally  to 
the  city  without  permission  of  the  committee  of  correspond- 
ence, and  promising  not  to  make  entry  at  the  custom  house 
and  to  continue  speedily  on  his  way. 

Capain  Lockyer  saved  the  property  of  the  East  India 
Company  by  his  caution;  for  the  populace  were  alert  and 
ready  for  violent  measures.  This  was  shown  by  an  inci- 
dent which  occurred  before  Lockyer  returned  to  sea.  On 
Friday  of  this  week  Captain  Chambers  arrived  in  the  Lon- 
don with  a  personal  consignment  of  eighteen  chests  of  tea, 
whose  presence  on  board  he  attempted  in  vain  to  conceal. 
The  facts  were  laid  before  a  meeting  of  citizens  and  the 
■*'  Mohawks "  were  prepared  for  action  at  a  concerted 
signal,  when  some  impatient  souls  thronged  on  board  the 
vessel,  stove  in  the  chests,  and  cast  the  tea  into  the  waters.^ 
The  New  Yorkers  had  now  surpassed  the  Bostonians  in 
their  radicalism,  for  the  latter  had  exhausted  all  other  ex- 
pedients before  employing  force.  /  The  New  Yorkers  acted 
in  resentment  of  the  glaring  duplicity  of  Captain  Chambers, 
who  only  six  months  before  had  received  the  gratitude 
of  a  New  York  meeting  for  having  been  one  of  the  first 
captains  to  refuse  a  tea  consignment  of  the  East  India 
Company. 

"^he  course  of  opposition  in  the  commercial  centers  of  the 
North  thus  took  the  form  of  an  uncompromising  refusal  to 
permit  the  tea  to  be  landed.  In  every  instance,  the  move- 
ment was  crowned  with  success,  because  it  was  engineered 
by  an  alliance  of  radicals  and  the  generality  of  the  mer- 
chantsJ^_^The  fourth  port  to  which  the  tea  was  consigned 

^  "Several  persons  of  reputation  were  placed  below  to  keep  tally  and 
about  the  companion  to  prevent  ill-disposed  persons  from  going  below 
the  deck."    "  Brutus,"  loc.  cit. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      295 

presented  a  situation  in  which  such  a  union  of  forces  was 
difficult  to  accompHsh;  and  therefore  the  resistance  to  the 
East  India  Company  yielded  results  only  partially  suc- 
cessful. 

When  news  of  the  new  commercial  advantages  granted 
to  the  East  India  Company  reached  Charleston,  the  news- 
papers hardly  did  more  than  to  reprint  some  of  the  more 
trenchant  pieces  from  the  northern  newspapers.  The 
Charlestonians  in  general  experienced  considerable  difficulty 
in  discovering  why  they  should  be  alarmed  at  receiving 
dutied  tea  directly  from  the  East  India  Company  when  they 
had  complaisantly  accepted  it  from  merchants  who  had 
themselves  bought  it  of  the  company.  It  was  some  of  the 
more  radical  planters  who  began  to  propagate  the  doctrine 
of  an  active  resistance  to  the  East  India  Company  and  in- 
vented the  pleasant  fiction  that  the  private  orders  of  cus- 
tomed tea  had  been  imported  in  the  belief  that  the  duty 
would  soon  be  repealed  by  Parliament.^  The  merchants 
were  loath  to  take  any  part  in  the  movement,  many  of  them 
being  factors  and  thus  bearing  a  relationship  to  their  Eng- 
lish firms  not  unlike  that  of  the  tea  consignees  to  the  E^st 
India  Company.  Furthermore,  a  non-importation  of  dutied 
teas  would  inure  to  the  benefit  of  a  very  small  smuggling 
class,  and  the  merchants  had  no  reason  to  prefer  their  wel- 
fare to  that  of  a  legitimate  trading  company.  The  mer- 
chants also  had  large  quantities  of  dutied  teas  in  their  stores 
and,  in  any  event,  desired  to  dispose  of  this  stock  before 
opposing  the  East  India  Company./ The  problem  of  the 
radicals  was  to  secure  the  backing  of  the  mercantile  ele- 
ment, and  to  accomplish  this  end  by  making  as  few  conceS'- 
sions  as  possible^ 

On  Thursday  morning.  December  2.  the  tea  ship  London 

^"Junius  Brutus"  in  S.  C.  Gaz.,  Nov.  29,  1773. 


296  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

came  to  anchor  before  the  town,  containing  the  consign- 
ment of  the  East  India  Company  as  well  as  several  tea  con- 
signments to  private  merchants.  At  once  handbills  were 
distributed  about  the  streets  inviting  all  inhabitants  and 
particularly  the  landholders  to  assemble  at  the  Exchange 
the  next  day/  The  people  responded  in  such  numbers  as  to 
cause  the  main  beams  of  the  structure  to  give  way.  In  the 
heated  debates,  it  was  urged  that  the  East  India  Company 
had  the  same  right  to  import  dutied  teas  as  the  private  mer- 
chants had  been  enjoying;  but  the  greater  number  held 
otherwise.  They  prevailed  upon  the  tea  consignees  to  re- 
sign their  commissions,  and  framed  an  agreement,  pledging 
the  merchants  who  should  sign  it  to  a  non-importation  of 
dutied  teas.  Captain  Curling,  of  the  tea  ship,  being  present, 
was  instructed  to  return  to  England  with  the  tea ;  but  n® 
action  was  taken  with  reference  to  the  private  tea  orders 
on  board,  which  w'ere  publicly  landed  by  their  owners. 

The  committee  entrusted  with  the  circulation  of  the 
agreement,  headed  by  Chris  Gadsden  and  composed  mostly 
of  planters,  met  with  little  success.  Even  the  appearance 
of  a  new  agreement,  signed  by  the  "  principal  planters  and 
landholders  "  and  threatening  boycott  against  dealers  in 
dutied  teas,  had  no  visible  effect  on  the  merchants.  Their 
objection  was  that  the  proposed  agreement  was  aimed 
against  dutied  teas  only  and  w^ould  directly  enrich  and  en- 
large the  smuggling  class. ^^..^The  cause  of  the  merchants 
was  suffering  from  lack  of  organization;  and  in  order  to 
secure  a  greater  solidarity,  they  established,  on  December  9, 
the  "  Charles-Town  Chamber  of  Commerce,"  which  there- 
after devoted  itself  to  promoting  mercantile  interests,  polit- 

^  For  the  events  of  Dec.  2  and  3,  vide  S.  C.  Gaz.,  Dec.  6,  1773;  -V.  Y. 
Gazetteer,  Dec.  23;  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i,  pp.  97-98. 

'Two  letters  of  the  Charleston  consignees;  Pub.  Rec.  Off.,  C.  0.  5, 
no.  133  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  f.  4od. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      297 

ical  as  well  as  economic,  V  The  planters  met  at  Mrs.  Swal- 
low's tavern  on  Wednesday,  the  fifteenth,  in  preparation 
for  a  general  meeting  which  had  been  called  for  Friday; 
and  it  was  probably  more  than  a  coincidence  that  their  nat- 
ural allies,  the  mechanics,  held  a  meeting  there  at  the  same 
time.  The  merchants  took  occasion  to  hold  a  secret  meet- 
ing of  preparation  on  the  following  day.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  crowd  assembled  at  the  Exchange  on  Fri- 
day, December  17.  The  chairman,  George  Gabriel  Powell, 
opened  the  meeting  by  strongly,  recommending  moderation. 

Both  radicals  and  merchants  were  represented  by  able 
speakers;  the  former  appeared  at  first  to  have  the  upper 
hand,  and  a.  vote  was  passed  for  the  non-importation  of 
dutied  teas.  The  moderates  now  rallied  their  forces,  and 
succeeded  in  amending  the  motion  to  include  all  teas  "  from 
any  Place  whatsoever."  By  this  amendment,  legitimate 
traders  and  smugglers  were  placed  on  an  equal  footing. 
The  merchants  gained  a  further  point  in  that  six  months 
were  allowed  for  the  consumption  of  the  teas  on  hand.  The 
radicals  made  a  final  attempt  to  commit  the  meeting  to  the 
fundamental  principle  of  "  no  taxation  without  representa- 
tion;" a  motion  was  made  to  prohibit  from  the  province 
wine,  molasses  and  everything  else  subject  to  a  revenue 
duty  imposed  by  Parliament.  On  the  plea  that  the  hour 
was  late,  the  meeting  adjourned  with  a  resolution  to  take  up 
the  matter  for  consideration  at  a  meeting  early  in  Jan- 
uary.^ This,  as  the  sequel  showed,  proved  to  be  a  final 
disposition  of  the  matter.^ 

]^,Ieantime  the  period  for  the  payment  of  the  tea  duty 
expired  on  Tuesday  night,  December  21.    As  in  the  case  of 

^  S.  C.  Gaz.,  Dec.  13,  1773;  5".  C.  Gaz.  &  Coun.  Journ.,  Dec.  28. 
*  Drayton,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  97-98 ;  5".  C.  Gas.,  Dec.  20,  1773 ;  Pub.. 
Rec.  Off.,  C.  O.  5,  no.  133  (L.  C.  Transcripts) ,  f.  4od. 
'  Drayton,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  100. 


298 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


the  Boston  tea  ship,  Captain  Curling  had  entered  at  the  cus- 
tom house  and  landed  a  part  of  his  cargo.  The  resolutions 
of  the  two  public  meetings  foreboded  a  spirited  resistance 
to  the  seizure  of  the  tea  by  the  customs  officials,  but  the 
lukewarm  support  given  by  the  merchants  was  a  cold  douche 
to  the  hopes  of  the  radicals/  The  customs  officers  began 
to  land  the  tea  about  seven  o'clock  Wednesday  morning, 
and  by  noon  all  of  it  was  placed  on  shore  and  about  half  of 
it  in  the  warehouse.  "  There  was  not  the  least  disturbance," 
wrote  the  comptroller  of  the  customs ;  "  the  gentlemen  that 
came  on  the  wharf  behaved  with  their  usual  complaisance 
and  good  nature  to  me  .  .  ."  "  (The  tea  remained  undis- 
turbed in  the  government  warehouse  for  three  years,  when 
it  was  auctioned  off  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  revolutionary 
government^ 

*  It  is  apparent  from  this  recital  of  events  that  the  British 
government  and  its  reluctant  ally,  the  East  India  Company, 
had  been  foiled  in  their  attempt  to  effect  the  jalg  of  dutied 
tea,  owned  by  the  company,  in  the  colonies.  *-  -The  results 
of  this  politico-business  venture  were  to  be  far  reaching. 
Meantime  the  radicals  and  merchants  of  America,  having 
beheld  the  fruits  of  their  coalition,  found  time  to  reflect  on 
the  situation  in  which  they  found  themselves,  ^f  the  four 
instances  of  opposition  to  the  East  India  Company,  the 
Boston  Tea  Party  was  best  calculated  to  enkindle  the  public 
mind ;  but,  to  the  surprise  of  the  radicals,  there  was  no  burst- 
ing forth  of  the  flame  that  had  swept  over  the  country  at 
the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  again  during  the  Townshend 

'  Governor  Bull  believed  that,  if  the  merchants  had  been  a  little  more 
aggressive  in  showing  disapprobation  of  the  public  meetings  and  the 
consignees  had  shown  a  little  more  backbone,  the  plan  of  the  East 
India  Company  would  have  been  put  peaceably  into  operation.  Drake, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  339-341- 

*  Ihid.,  p.  342. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      299 

Acts,  save  in  Massachusetts  where  the  fuse  had  been  care- 
fully laid  by  the  committees  of  correspondence.  *^he  mer- 
chant class  generally  was  shocked  into  remorseful  silence  y 
by  the  anarchy  that  had  laid  profane  hands  upon  property 
belonging  to  a  private  trading  company;  and  many  other 
people,  more  liberally  inclined,  were  of  their  cast  of  mindy 
As  a  conservative  Boston  journal  quoted  with  approval : 

Whenever  a  factious  set  of  People  rise  to  such  a  Pitch  of 
Insolence,  as  to  prevent  the  Execution  of  the  Laws,  or  destroy 
the  Property  of  Individuals,  just  as  their  Caprice  or  Humour 
leads  them;  there  is  an  end  of  all  Order  and  Government, 
Riot  and  Confusion  must  be  the  natural  Consequence  of  such 
Measures.  It  is  impossible  for  Trade  to  flourish  where  Prop- 
erty is  insecure :  Whether  this  has  not  been  the  Case  at  Boston 
for  some  time  past,  you  are  the  best  Judge.  There  is  a  strange 
Spirit  of  Licentiousness  gone  forth  into  the  World,  which 
shelters  itself  under  the  venerable  and  endearing  Name  of 
Liberty,  buti  is  as  different  from  it  as  Folly  is  from  Wisdom.^ 

Furthermore,  what  right  did  the  Bostonians  have  to  pose 
as  the  jealous  guardians  of  the  principle  of  local  taxation,  it 
was  asked  in  many  parts  of  British  America,  v/hen  Boston- 
ians had  been  the  most  notorious  importers  of  dutied  teas 
during  the  last  two  or  three  years?  Even  Dr.  Franklin, 
who  from  his  official  position  at  London  represented  all 
America  more  nearly  than  any  other  one  man,  called  the 
tea  destruction  "  an  Act  of  violent  Injustice  on  our  part." 
He  wrote  at  length  to  the  Massachusetts  Committee  of  Cor- 
respondence : 

I  am  truly  concern'd  as  I  believe  all  considerate  Men  are  with 
you,  that  there  should  seem  to  any  a  Necessity  for  carrying 
]\Iatters  to  such  Extremity,  as,   in  a  Dispute  about  Publick 

'  Words  of  an   Englishman   writing  to  an   American    friend ;   Mass. 
Ga.::.  &  News-Letter,  Nov.  17.  1774. 


300 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 


Rights,  to  destroy  private  Property.  .  .  .1  cannot  but  wish 
&  hope  that  before  any  compulsive  Measures  are  thought  of 
here,  our  General  Court  will  have  shewn  a  Disposition  to  re- 
pair the  Damage  and  make  Compensation  to  the  Company.^ 

As  has  been  suggested,  Sam  Adams's  committee  system 
taught  the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  and  the  nearby 
provinces  to  react  differently,  although  even  here  the  mari- 
time town  of  Bristol,  R.  I.,  saw  fit  to  qualify  its  resolutions 
against  the  East  India  Company  by  declaring : 

Some  may  apprehend  there  is  danger  from  another  quarter, 
generally  unforeseen  and  unsuspected;  that  anarchy  and  con- 
fusion, which  may  prevail,  will  as  naturally  establish  tyranny 
and  arbitrary  power,  as  one  extreme  leads  to  another;  many 
on  the  side  of  liberty,  when  they  see  it  degenerating  into  an- 
archy, fearing  their  persons  are  not  safe,  nor  their  property 
secure,  will  be  likely  to  verge  to  the  other  extreme.  .  .  .- 


From  the  moment  of  the  sinking  of  the  tea  at  Boston, 
public  sentiment  in  Massachusetts  entirely  escaped  any 
bounds  that  the  mercantile  element  could  have  set  for  it.  It 
has  been  shown  how,  in  the  earlier  months,  the  popular  de- 
mands, originally  directed  against  the  dutied  shipments  of 
the  British  trading  monopoly  alone,  were  extended  to  in- 
•^  elude  consignments  to  private  merchants  as  well.  Imme- 
diately after  the  tea  destruction,  the  radicals  proceeded  to 
take  the  logical  next  step — the  boycott  of  all  teas,  \vhether 
^utied  or  smuggled /^This  may  have  been  done  to  propitiate 
the  dealers  in  legal  teas;  but  it  also  had  the  effect  of  pre- 
venting the  selling  of  customed  teas  to  unsuspecting  persons 
who  believed   they   w^ere  buying  the   contraband   article." 

^  Letter  of  Feb.  2,  1774;  Writings  (Smyth),  vol.  vi,  pp.  178-180.  Vi'de 
also  ibid.,  p.  223. 

*  R.  L  Col.  Rccs.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  274-275. 

'  "  Concordia  "  and  "  Deborah  Doubtful "  in  Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  13,  27, 
^774- 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY      301 

Many  believed  this  step  to  be  "  chimerical ;"  ^  certainly  the 
smugglers  were  robbed  of  their  pecuniary  interest  in  the 
struggle,  but  they  were  too  deeply  involved  to  withdraw 
their  support  now.  vVVithin  a  week  after  the  tea  destruc- 
tion, the  tea  dealers  of  Boston  agreed  to  suspend  the  sales 
of  all  teas,  dutied  or  otherwise,  after  January  20,  1774^) 
When  that  day  arrived,  two  barrels  of  Bohea  still  unsold 
were  publicly  burned  in  front  of  the  custom  house. ^ 

The  nearby  town  of  Charlestown  co-operated  with  the 
Boston  measures ;  and  the  Boston  plan  was  also  adopted  by 
Worcester,  Acton,  Lunenburgh,  and  perhaps  by  other  towns.^ 
Most  Alassachusetts  towns,  however,  were  content  to  de- 
cree merely  the  abstention  from  dutied  teas.  Up  until  the 
first  of  April,  1774,  forty  towns  had  passed  resolutions;* 
most  of  them  affixed  a  boycott  as  the  sanction  of  the  re- 
solves; and  seveml  towns  appointed  belated  committees  of 
correspondence. vThe  height  of  radical  fervor  was  reached 
in  a  resolution  of  ^he  town  of  Windham,  which  declared : 
"  That  neither  the  Parliament  of  Britain  nor  the  Parlia- 
ment of  France  nor  any  other  Parliament  but  that  which 
sits  supreme  in  our  Province  has  a  Right  to  lay  any  Taxes 

*  Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  13,  20,  1774. 

*  Seventy-nine  dealers  agreed  to  the  resolutions ;  nine  would  oppose 
dutied  tea  only;  and  four  refused  even  a  qualified  assent.  Mass.  Spy, 
Dec.  30,  1773,  Jan.  20,  1774;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  24,  Feb.  7,  1774. 

'Mass.  Spy,  Dec.  30,  1773,  Jan.  6,  Feb.  10,  1774;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss., 
vol.  viii,  pp.  644-649,  681-683. 

*  Abington,  Bedford,  Berwick,  Beverly,  Bolton,  Boxford,  Braintree, 
Cape  Elizabeth,  Colerain,  Concord,  Dedham,  Dorchester,  Eastham,  Fal- 
mouth, Framinghani,  Gorham,  Grafton,  Harvard,  Hull,  Ipswich,  Lin- 
coln, MedHeld,  Medway,  Newton,  Newbury,  Pembrooke,  Salem,  Sand- 
wich, Scarborough,  Shirley,  Shrewsbury,  Sudbury,  Topsfield,  Town- 
shend,  Truro,  Watertozvn,  JVellfleet,  JVells,  Westford,  Windham.  For 
these  resolutions,  vide  the  current  newspapers  and  Bos.  Com.  Cor. 
Mss.,  vols,  vi,  vii  and  viii,  passim.  The  towns  italicized  included  the 
bovcott. 


302 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 


on  us  for  the  purpose  of  Raising  a  Revenue."  Only  a  few 
towns  took  unfavorable  action,  Marshfield  hoping  to  see  the 
perpetrators  of  the  Boston  violence  brought  to  justice,  and 
Littleton  discharging  its  committee  of  correspondence/  At 
Sandwich  the  radicals  defeated  unfriendly  action  by  re- 
fusing to  hold  a  meeting;  and  at  Eastham  they  succeeded 
in  rescinding  the  condemnatory  resolves  of  an  earlier  meet- 
ing.^ 

The  excitement  over  the  tea  was  utilized  by  the  Boston 
radicals,  though  with  only  partial  success,  in  an  attempt  to 
stir  up  the  nearby  provinces  to  protest  and  action.  Accord- 
ing to  Governor  Wentworth,  of  New  Hampshire,  "  the  un- 
wearied applications  from  Boston  communicated  the  flame 
here."  ^  A  town  meeting  met  at  Portsmouth  on  December 
1 6,  1773,  and  passed  strong  resolutions  against  the  impor- 
tation of  dutied  teas  similar  to  the  Philadelphia  resolutions 
of  October  16.*  Shortly  after,  several  other  towns  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  the  capital.  °    It  was  not  until  the  end 

*  In  both  cases  the  radicals  signed  their  names  to  published  protests. 
Mass.  Spy,  Feb.  10,  24,  1774. 

*  Mass.  Spy,  Apr.  7,  1774;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  iii,  pp.  307-310. 
The  sincerity  of  the  widespread  resolutions  was  quickly  evidenced  by 
a  number  of  instances  of  enforcement.  E.  g.,  vide  Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  13, 
Feb.  17,  Mch.  17,  31,  Apr.  7,  July  21,  1774.  The  country  peddler  proved 
to  be  the  most  persistent  offender.  At  Boston  the  determination  to 
prevent  the  shipment  of  customed  teas  to  private  merchants  led  to  a 
second  Tea  Party  on  March  8,  1774,  when  28^  chests  of  tea  on  board 
the  brig  Fortune  were  cast  into  the  harbor  by  the  omnipresent  "  In- 
dians." The  Boston  Committee  declared  in  a  letter  that  "  this  event 
must  convince  the  Merchants  in  England  that  the  extorted  duty  on 
that  Article  is  as  disagreeable  to  the  good  People  of  this  Province  as 
the  intended  monopoly  of  the  East  India  Company."  Bos.  Com.  Cor. 
Mss.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  726-729;  Mass.  Spy,  Mch.  10,  17,  1774. 

'  Brit.  Papers  ("Sparks  Mss."),  vol.  i,  p.  21. 

*  N.  H.  Gas.,  Dec.  24,  1773. 

*  Barrington,  Exeter,  Hampton,  Haverhill,  Newcastle.  Mass.  Spy, 
Jan.  13,  1774;  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  10;  A''.  H.  Gas.,  Feb.  25, 
Mch.  4. 


Ol     J  UllC,      1/74?      LiidL     LllC     lldUlC,      VVliClCUi       VVCliLVVUlll 

spoken,  showed  how  defective  were  its  incendiary  proper- 
ties.    On  the  twenty-fifth,  a  vessel  arrived  at  Portsmoatlf 
with  a  consignment  of  twenty-seven  chests  of  dutied  tea.  f  or 
a  private  merchant.    The  tea  was  landed;  the  town  meetiug 
which  assembled  to  consider  the  situation  was  temperate 
beyond  the  hope  of  the  governor.    A  committee,  composed 
chiefly  of  "discreet  men  who  .  .  .  detested  every  idea  o:' 
violating  property,"  was  appointed  to  treat  with  the  c  • 
signee,  while  the  town  meeting  chose  "  a  guard  of  f ; 
holders  to  protect  and  defend  the  Custom  House  andv  tl\e 
tea    from  any   attempt   or   interruption."     The  merchaiu 
readily  accepted  the  committee's  offer  to  export  the  tea  to 
any  market  he  chose  at  the  town's  expense;  and  thereupoii 
the  duty  was  openly  paid  and  the  tea  publicly  carted  h 
to  the  vessel.     The  whole  episode  passed  off  without  <.-. 
turbance,  an  incipient  attempt  being  quelled  by  the  tow?^^ 
men  themselves.^ 

The  people  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  were  even  more  belated  in 
adopting  resolutions,  although  urged  to  do  so  by  a  letter 
from  the  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence.     Fina 
on  Saturday,  January  i,  1774,  a  notice  was  mysteriously 
posted   at   the   Brick    Market,    signed   by   "Legion,"    ?'•■' 
threatening  that  the  town  officials  would  surely  be  oppo 
in  any  office  in  town  or  colony  to  which  they  might  aspif' 
unless  a  town  meeting  were  called  to  adopt  resolutions  I  ' 
Boston  and  the  other  towns.     The  notice  had  its  effect 
town  meeting  was  held  on  the  following  Tuesday,  and    > 
an  adjournment  on  January  12  the  town  adopted  the  Phil-; 
delphia  resolutions  verbatim  and  appointed  a  committeeol 
correspondence.'     This  prompted  the  smaller  towns  to  paso 

^  N.  H.  Gas.,  July  i,  8,  1774;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  512-513. 
^  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  17,  1774;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Jan.  24. 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ilar  resolutions  and  became  a  signal  for  the  establish- 

it  of  the  committee  of  correspondence  system  through- 
Rhode  Island/     Only  one  New  England  province  re- 

ned  silent;  and  no  amount  of  urging  from  Boston  was 

icient  to  arouse  the  people  of  Connecticut  to  a  sense  of 

jer." 

it  New  York  we  have  seen  that  news  of  the  Boston 
idalism  had,  for  the  moment,  turned  the  tide  in  favor  of 

,  radicals,  and  that  at  Philadelphia  resolutions  of  ap- 
►val  had  been  impulsively  adopted  contrary  to  the  judg- 
nt  of  the  "  substantial  thinking  part.T  JSTevertheless,  the 
>er  judgment  of  both  towns  and  of  the  remaining  prov- 
jes  was  against  the  action  of  the  Bostoniansl  Several 
Jetings  of  the  people  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  prompted  by 
t  radicals  in  Tapuary  and  March,  1774,  proved  futile  in 
Mr  outcome.^  *  The  ebbing  of  the  radical  movement  seemed 
parent  on  almost  every  hand.^-^ 

By  the  end  of  March,  Providence,  Bristol,  Richmond,  New  Shore- 
!:r-Ti,  Cumberland  and  Barrington  had  acted.    R.  L  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vii, 
■  ■/.  272-280,  283.     The  town  of   Scituate   chose  a  committee   in  Sep- 
nber. 

'  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  717-718. 

^S.  C.  Gaz.,  Jan.  24,  Mch.  7,  21,  28,  1774;  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i, 
1..  100.    At  the  Charleston  meeting  of  Mch.  16,  a  standing  committee 
forty-five  "was  appointed  with  power  to  act  as  executive  body  and  to 
11  the  inhabitants  together  upon  occasion. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Contest  of  Merchants  and  Radicals  for  Dominance 

IN  THE  Commercial  Provinces  (March-August, 

1/74) 

^The  enactment  of  the  coercive  acts  by  Parliament  called 
fonh  the  union  of  interests  and  action  in  America,  which 
the  opposition  to  the  East  India  Company  in  the  leading 
seaports  had  failed  to  evoke.  ^  The  chief  of  these  laws  were 
intended  to  deal  with  the  lawless  conditions  which  had 
arisen  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  out  of  the  tea 
commotions.  The  first  of  the  series,  the  Boston  Port  Act, 
received  the  royal  assent  on  the  last  day  of  March.  1774.^ 
This  act  provided  for  the  closing  of  the  harbor  of  Boston 
to  commerce  from  and  after  June  i  and  the  transfer  of  the 
custom  house  to  Marblehead  and  the  capital  to  Salem.  The 
port  of  Boston  was  to  be  re-opened  when  the  East  India 
Company  and  the  customs  officers  and  others  had  been  re- 
imbursed for  the  losses  sustained  by  them  during  the  riots, 
and  when  the  king  in  privy  council  was  satisfied  that  trade 
might  be  safely  carried  on  there  and  the  customs  duly  col- 
lected. 

After  an  interval  of  two  months,  two  other  acts  were 
passed  which  provided  for  thorough-going  alterations  of 
the  constitution  of  the  province."  vCThe  governor's  council, 
which,  being  elective  by  the  Assembly,  had  hitherto  ob- 

1  14  George  III,  c.  19.  For  tlie  parliamentary  debates  on  this  and  the 
following  acts,  vide  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xvii,  pp.  1 159-1325. 

-  14  George  III,  c.  45,  c.  39- 

305 


/ 


3o6 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


structed  all  efforts  to  suppress  rioting,  was  now  made  ap- 
pointive by  the  king,  as  in  all  other  royal  provinces.  A 
^  direct  blow  was  aimed  at  the  system  of  committees  of  cor- 
respondence by  the  provision  placing  town  meetings  under 
the  immediate  control  of  the  governor  from  and  after 
August  I,  and  permitting  only  the  annual  meeting  for  the 
election  of  officers  to  be  held  without  his  express  authoriza- 
tion. The  way  was  prepared  for  a  rigorous  execution  of 
the  customs  laws  by  providing  that  a  person  might  be  tried 
in  another  province  or  in  Great  Britain,  who  was  charged 
with  a  capital  crime  committed  "  either  in  the  execution  of 
his  duty  as  a  magistrate,  for  the  suppression  of  riots  or  in 
the  support  of  the  laws  of  revenue,  or  in  acting  in  his  duty 
as  an  officer  of  revenue,"  or  as  acting  in  a  subordinate 
capacity  in s  either  case.  The  three  acts  passed  with  great 
majorities.3-^A  motion  to  rescind  the  tea  duty  called  forth 
a  remarkable  speech  in  favor  of  repeal  by  Edmund  Burke ; 
but  the  motion  was  lost  by  a  large  vote.  ^^ 
.//The  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  Boston  Port  Act  put  a 
new  face  on  public  affairs  in  America.  It  changed  com- 
I  pletely  the  nature  of  the  contest  with  Parliament  which  had 
been  going  on  intermittently  since  1764.  {It  created  the 
basis  for  a  realignment  of  forces  and  strengtli,  the  impor- 
tance of  which  was  to  be  a  fundamental  factor  in  the  later 
development  of  events.  Hitherto  the  struggle  with  Parlia- 
ment had  been,  in  large  part,  inspired  and  guided  by  tht 
demand  of  the  mercantile  class  for  trade  reforms.  Each 
new  act  of  Parliament  had  accentuated  or  ameliorated  busi- 
ness distress  in  the  colonies :  and  in  proportion  to  the  reme- 
dial character  of  the  legislation,  the  barometer  of  American 
discontent  had  risen  or  fallen.     To  carry  on  their  prcpa- 

'  In  June,  the  Quebec  Act  and  the  Quartering  Act  were  added  to  the 
trilogy  of  measures  already  enacted.  These  acts  merely  added  fuel  to 
the  blaxe  that  had  already  started  in  the  colonies. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


307 


ganda  successfully,  the  merchants  had  found  it  necessary  to 
form  alliances  with  their  natural  enemies  in  society — with 
the  intelligent,  hopeful  radicals  w^ho  dreamed  of  a  semi- 
independent  American  nation  or  something  better,  and  with 
the  innumerable  and  nameless  individuals  whose  brains 
were  in  their  biceps,  men  who  were  useful  as  long  as  they 
could  be  held  in  leash.  The  passage  of  the  Boston  Port  Act 
and  the  other  laws  brought  things  to  an  issue  between  these 
two  elements,  already  grown  suspicious  of  each  other.  The 
question  in  controversy  between  Parliament  and  the  colo- 
nies was  changed  in  an  instant  from  a  difference  over 
trade  reforms  to  a  political  dispute,  pure  and  simple,  over 
the  right  of  Parliament  to  punish  and  prevent  mob  violence 
through  blockading  Boston  and  expurgating  the  Massachu- 
setts„constitution. ^  > 

'  Gouverneur  Morris  flippantly  described  the  development  of  events 
in  New  York  in  these  terms :  "  It  is  needless  to  premise,  that  the  lower 
orders  of  mankind  are  more  easily  led  by  specious  appearances  than 
those  of  a  more  exalted  station.  .  .  .  The  troubles  in  America,  during 
Granville's  administration,  put  our  gentry  upon  this  finesse.  They 
stimulated  some  daring  coxcombs  to  rouse  the  mob  into  an  attack  upon 
the  bounds  of  order  and  decency.  These  fellows  became  the  Jack 
Cades  of  the  day,  the  leaders  in  all  the  riots,  the  belwethers  of  the 
flock.  The  reason  of  the  manoeuvre  in  those  who  wished  to  keep  fair 
with  the  Government,  and  at  the  same  time  to  receive  the  incense  of 
popular  applause,  you  will  readily  perceive.  On  the  whole,  the  shep- 
herds were  not  much  to  blame  in  a  politic  point  of  view.  The  bel- 
wethers jingled  merrily,  and  roared  out  liberty,  and  property,  and  re- 
ligion, and  a  multitude  of  cant  terms,  which  every  one  thought  he  un- 
derstood, and  was  egregiously  mistaken..  For  you  must  know  the  shep- 
herds kept  the  dictionary  of  the  day;  and,  like  the  mysteries  of  the 
ancient  mythology,  it  was  not  for  profane  eyes  or  ears.  This  answered 
many  purposes;  the  simple  flock  put  themselves  entirely  under  the 
protection  of  these  most  excellent  shepherds.  By  and  bye  behold  a  great 
metamorphosis,  without  the  help  of  Ovid  or  his  divinities  but  entirely 
effectuated  by  two  modern  Genii,  the  god  of  Ambition  and  the  god- 
dess of  Faction.  The  first  of  these  prompted  the  shepherds  to  shear 
some  of  their  flock,  and  then,  in  conjunction  with  the  other,  converted 
the  belwethers  into  shepherds.     That  we  have  been  in  hot  water  with 


-08  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

/ 

Vlji   this  new   aspect   of   the   controversy  the   merchants 

found  themselves  instinctively  siding  with  the  home  gov- 
ernment. No  commercial  principle  was  at  stake  in  the  co- 
ercive acts;  and  the  Boston  violence  was  a  manifestation  of 
mob  rule  which  every  self-respecting  merchant  abhorred 
from  his  very  soul.  Nor  could  he  see  any  commercial  ad- 
vantage which  might  accrue  from  pursuing  the  will-o'-the- 
wisp  ideas  of  the  radicals.  The  uncertain  prospect  which 
the  radical  plans  held  forth  was  not  comparable  with  the 
tangible  benefits  which  came  from  membership  in  the  British 
empire  under  existing  conditions;  even  absolute  freedom  of 
trade  meant  little  in  view  of  the  restrictive  trade  systems 
of  the  leading  nations  of  the  world,  the  comparative  ease 
with  which  the  most  objectionable  parliamentary  regulations 
continued  to  be  evaded,  and  the  insecure,  if  not  dangerous, 
character  of  any  independent  government  which  the  rad- 
icals might  establish.  /AA^hen  all  was  said  and  done,  the  mer- 
chants knew  that  their  welfare  depended  upon  their  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain — upon  the  protection  afforded 
by  the  British  navy,  upon  the  acquisition  of  new  markets  by 

the  British  Parliament  since  every  body  knows.  Consequently  these 
new  shepherds  had  their  hands  full  of  employment.  The  old  ones  kept 
themselves  least  in  sight,  and  a  want  of  confidence  in  each  other  was 
not  the  least  evil  which  followed.  The  port  of  Boston  has  been  shut 
up.  These  sheep,  simple  as  they  are,  cannot  be  gulled  as  heretofore. 
In  short,  there  is  no  ruling  them;  and  now,  to  change  the  metaphor, 
the  heads  of  the  mobility  grow  dangerous  to  the  gentry,  and  how  to 
keep  them  down  is  the  question."  Letter  to  Penn,  May  20,  17745 
Sparks,  J.,  Lxje  of  Gouvenieur  Morris  (Boston,  1832),  vol.  i,  pp.  23-26; 
also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  342-343.  Vide  also  an  unsigned  letter  in 
ibid.,  302  n.,  and  Governor  Martin's  letter  in  .V.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix, 
pp.  1083-1087.  In  the  case  of  Massachusetts,  ^^de  the  statement  of  "  A 
Converted  Whig"  who,  although  a  member  of  the  Boston  Committee 
of  Correspondence,  began  to  desert  the  radical  cause  after  the  Boston 
Tea  Party.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  103-106.  For  a  similar  view  in 
the  case  of  Pennsylvania,  vide  Charles  Thomson's  letter  to  Drayton. 
Stille,  Life  of  Dickinson,  p.  345. 


CONTEST  IX  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


309 


British  arms,  upon  legislation  which  fostered  their  shipping, 
subsidized  certain  industries  and  protected  the  merchants 
from  foreign  competition  in  British  markets/  Many  de- 
tails of  this  legislation  had  proved  defective,  but  Parliament  ■■^ 
had  shown  a  disposition  to  correct  the  worst  features ;  and 
this  disposition  would,  in  all  probability,  continue,  since 
British  capital  invested  in  A^nerican  trade  had  a  powerful 
reoresentation  in  Parliament.  J-'  in  -j 

(From  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  coercive  actsiby  ^ '  .^ 
Parliament,  thus,  there  became  evident  a  strong  drift  on  the 
part  of  the  colonial  mercantile  class  to  the  British  view- 
point of  the  questions  at  issue.     ]\Iany  merchants  at  once    / 
took  their  stand  with  the  forces  of  government  and  law  and"' 
order^hese  men   may  properly  be  classed   as   conserva- 
tives, or  loyalists,  in  the  same  sense  that  the  royal  official     - 
class  were.     Others  believed  that  all  was  not  yet  lost  and 
that,  by  remaining  in  the  movement,  they  could  restrain  its 
excesses  and  give  it  a  distinctly  conservative  cast.  1  Such 
men  were,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  moderates,  being  will- 
ing, though  for  partisan  reasons,  to  indulge  in  extra-legal 
activitieg./^ 

<:;^ut'the  coercive  acts  were  equally  important  in  making  ^,^^ 
converts  to  the  radical  position.  <\Vhereas  the  mob  destruc- 
tion of  the  tea  had  antagonized  many  people,  the  enactment 
of  the  severe  punitive  acts  served,  in  the  judgment  of  many 
of  them,  to  place  the  greater  guilt  on  the  other  sideT'  A  sig- 
nificant instance  was  the  case  of  Dr.  Franklin,  who  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1774,  had  denounced  the  Boston  Tea  Party  as  an  un- 
justifiable act  of  violence.  Writing  after  the  passage  of  the 
acts,  he  declared  to  his  loyalist  son : 

^  For  contemporary  expositions  of  this  view,  z-ide  The  Interest  of  the 
Merchants  and  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain  in  the  Present  Contest 
with  the  Colonies  Stated  and  Considered  (London,  1774)  ;  broadside, 
"To  the  Inhabitants  of  New- York,"  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  886-888; 
"  Mercurius  "  in  Ga.  Gaz.,  Sept.  28,  1774. 


3IO 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


I  do  not  so  much  as  you  do  wonder  that  the  ^Massachusetts 
[Assembly]  have  not  offered  Payment  for  the  Tea  .  .  . 
[Parliament  and  the  ministry]  have  extorted  many  Thousand 
Pounds  from  America  unconstitutionally,  under  Colour  of 
Acts  of  Parliament,  and  with  an  armed  Force.  Of  this  Money 
they  ought  to  make  Restitution.  They  might  first  have  taken 
out  Payment  for  the  Tea,  &c.  and  returned  the  rest.^ 

Another  conspicuous  and  important  instance  of  conver- 
sion was  that  of  William  Henry  Dra\i;on,  the  wealthy 
young  South  Carolinian  who,  with  fiery  zeal,  had  excoriated 
Chris  Gadsden  and  the  non-importers  in  1769.  A  nephew 
of  Governor  Bull  and  favored  by  appointment  to  various 
offices  in  the  gift  of  the  king,  he  now^  turned  definitely  to 
the  side  of  the  popular  party.    To  use  his  own  words : 

The  same  spirit  of  indignation  which  animated  me  to  condemn 
popular  measures  in  the  year  1769,  because  although  avowedly 
in  defence  of  liberty,  they  absolutely  violated  the  freedom  of 
society,  by  demanding  men,  under  pain  of  being  stigmatized, 
and  of  sustaining  detriment  in  property,  to  accede  to  resolu- 
tions, which,  however  well  meant,  could  not  .  .  .  but  be  .  .  . 
Aery  grating  to  a  freeman,  so,  the  same  spirit  of  indignation 
.  .  .  actuates  me  in  like  manner,  nozc  to  assert  my  freedom 
against  the  malignant  nature  of  the  late  five  Acts  of  Parliament. 

His  course  was  consistent,  he  asserted :  "  I  opposed  suc- 
ceeding violations  of  my  rights,  then,  by  a  temporary  democ- 
racy, now,  by  an  established  monarchy."  " 

Governor  Penn  described  the  transformation  of  opinion 
at   Philadelphia.     "  They  look   upon  the  chastisement   of 

^  Letter  of  Sept.  7,  1774;  Writings  (Sm)rth),  vol.  vi,  p.  241. 

'"Letter  from  Freeman,"  Aug.  10,  1774;  Gibbes,  Documentary  His- 
tory, vol.  ii,  pp.  12-13.  Drayton  felt  it  necessary  to  deny  the  aspersion 
of  his  enemies  that  his  change  of  faith  was  occasioned  by  disap- 
pointment at  failing  to  receive  a  permanent  appointment  as  assistant 
judge.    Indeed,  this  charge  will  not  bear  serious  analysis. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  311 

Boston  to  be  purposely  rigorous,  and  held  up  by  way  of 
intimidation  to  all  America  ,  .  .  ,"  he  wrote.  "  Their 
delinquency  in  destroying  the  East  India  Company's  tea  is 
lost  in  the  attention  given  to  what  is  here  called  the  too 
severe  punishment  of  shutting  up  the  port,  altering  the  Con- 
stitution, and  making  an  Act,  as  they  term  it,  screening  the 
officers  and  soldiers  shedding  American  blood."  ^  In  Vir- 
ginia a  similar  change  of  opinion  was  revealed  in  the  reso- 
lutions adopted  by  county  meetings.  Patrick  Henry's  own 
county  of  Hanover  acknowledged  in  its  resolutions : 

Whether  the  people  there  [at  Boston]  were  warranted  by 
justice  when  they  destroyed  the  tea,  we  know  not;  but  this  we 
know,  that  the  Parliament  by  their  proceedings  have  made  us 
and  all  North  America  parties  in  the  present  dispute  .  .  . 
insomuch  that,  if  our  sister  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  is 
enslaved,  we  cannot  long  remain  free.- 

The  counties  of  Middlesex  and  Dinwiddie  condemned  with- 
out qualification  the  Boston  Tea  Party  as  an  "  outrage," 
and  added  their  determined  protest  and  opposition  to  the 
force  acts  of  Parliament." 

The  Boston  Port  Act  reached  Boston  on  May  10,  1774. 
The  people  realized  at  once  that  the  prosperity  of  the  great 
port  hung  in  the  balance,   and  two  groups  were  quickly 

*  Letter  to  Dartmouth,  July  5,  1774;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  514- 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  616.  Vide  the  similar  resolutions  of  a  mass  meeting 
of  Granville  County,  N.  C.    A' .  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1034-1036. 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  551-553.  Equally  significant  is  the  fact  that 
the  passage  of  the  coercive  acts  served  as  a  signal  for  the  people  of 
the  tobacco  provinces  to  manifest  their  first  opposition  to  private  ship- 
ments of  dutied  tea.  Vide  the  affair  of  the  Mary  and  Jane  in  Mary- 
land and  Virginia;  Md.  Gas.,  Ang.  11,  18,  1774,  and  Rind's  Va.  Gas., 
Aug.  25;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  703-70S1  727-72S. 


312 


THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 


kA^    y\ 


formed  as  to  the  course  which  should  be  pursued/     The 
extremists,  including  the  more  radical  merchants,  opposed 
any  restitution  to  the  East  India  Company  and  insisted  on 
an  immediate  commercial  oppositioiT^  which  should  go  to 
lengths  hitherto  unattempted,  including  not  only  non-impor- 
tation but  also  non-exportation,  and  affecting  not  only  Great 
Britain  but  also  every  part  of  the  West  Indies,  British  and 
foreign."   'This  party  believed  that  the  salvation  of  Boston 
i.and  the  province  depended  upon  swift  and  effective  coer- 
\  cion  of  Great  Britain,  and  they  were  entirely  willing  to 
'  sacrifice  temporary  business  benefits  for  what  they  esteemed 
■  a  larger  political  good.,<f^he  other  party,  composed  of  mer- 
chants and  of  conservatives  generally,  held  that  the  Tea 
Party  had  been  an  unjustifiable  act  of  mob  violence,  and 
'\    that  the  best  good  of  port  and  province  would  be  served  by 

?.    paying  for  the  tea  and  conforming  to  the  conditions  im- 
-     **  ^    posed  by  the  actl^   A  member  of  this  group  analyzed  the 

^  division  in  public  affairs  in  this  manner:  "the  merchants 

who  either  w411  not  or  cannot  make  remittances,  the  smug- 
glers, the  mechanicks,  and  those  who  are  facinated  with  the 
extravagant  notion  of  independency,  all  join  to  counteract 
the  majority  of  the  merchants,  and  the  lovers  of  peace  and 
good  order."  ^ 

'  "  The  present  dispute,"  wrote  one  of  the  radicals,  "  seems  confined 
to  these  two  sentiments :  either  to  pay,  or  not  to  pay  for  the  tea." 
Ihid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  487-489. 

*  They  wished  to  include  the  British  West  Indies  in  the  boycott  be- 
cause an  important  group  in  Parliament  owned  sugar  plantations 
there;  and  they  demanded  that  the  foreign  islands  should  likewise  be 
placed  beyond  the  pale  in  order  to  make  the  boycott  easier  to  admin- 
ister and  also  to  cause  the  French,  Danish  and  Dutch  governments  to 
protest  to  Great  Britain.  Thomas  Young  to  John  Lamb,  ]\Iay  13,  I774; 
Leake,  I.  Q.,  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  General  John  Lamb 
(Albany,  1850),  p.  85. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  506-508. 


y 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  313 

On  Friday,  May  13,  1774,  the  town  meeting  of  Boston 
adopted  a  resolution  which  was  designed  to  arouse  the 
united  opposition  of  the  continent  to  the  act  threatening 
Boston.  The  resokition  was  worded  to  attract  the  support 
of  moderate  folk  throughout  the  commercial  provinces,  but 
in  general,  though  not  absolutely,  it  advocated  the  meas- 
ures desired  by  the  Boston  radicals.  It  was  resolved  that 
"  if  the  other  colonies  come  into  a  joint  resolution  to  stop 
all  importations  from  Great  Britain,  and  exportations  to 
Great  Britain,  and  every  part  of  the  West  Indies,  till  the 
Act  for  blocking  up  this  harbour  be  repealed,  the  same  will 
prove  the  salvation  of  North  America  and  her  Liberties;" 
otherwise  *'  there  is  high  reason  to  fear  that  fraud,  power 
and  the  most  odious  oppression  will  rise  triumphant  over 
right,  justice,  social  happiness  and  freedom."  ^  A  commit- 
tee was  appointed  to  carry  the  resolutions  in  person  to 
Salem  and  Marblehead,  both  towns  being  beneficiaries  of 
the  odious  law;  and  the  committee  of  correspondence  was 
ordered  to  dispatch  messengers  with  the  vote  to  the  other 
towns  of  Massachusetts  and  to  the  other  provinces. 

The  resolution  of  ]\Iay  13,  soon  to  become  famous 
throughout  British  America,  was  seconded  by  a  circular 
letter  sent  forth  the  same  day  by  the  Boston  Committee  of 
Correspondence  with  the  concurrence  of  the  committees  of 
eight  adjoining  towns."  -^he  single  question,  according  to 
this  letter,  was :  do  you  consider  Boston  as  now  suffering 
in  the  common  cause  of  America?  if  so,  may  we  not  "  rely 
on  your  suspending  Trade  with  Great  Britain  at  least  .  .  ." 
A  few  days  later  the  town  meeting  resolved :  / 

^Mass.  Gac.  &  Post-Boy,  May  16,  1774;  also  Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1770- 
1777),  pp.  172-174. 

»  Charlestown.  Cambridge,  Brookline,  Dorchester,  Lexington,  Lynn, 
Newton  and  Roxburv.    Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  x,  pp.  810-81 1. 


314 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


That  the  trade  of  the  town  of  Boston  has  been  one  essential 
link  in  that  vast  chain  of  commerce,  which,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  ages,  has  raised  New  England  to  be  what  it  is,  the 
Southern  provinces  to  be  what  they  are,  the  West  Indies  to 
their  wealth,  and,  in  one  word,  the  British  Empire  to  that 
heighth  of  oppulence,  power,  pride  and  splendor,  at  which  it 
now  stands.^ 

The  radicals  waited  to  hear  the  response  to  the  Boston  ap- 
peal before  pushing  for  more  extreme  measures. 

Town  meetings  at  Salem  and  Marblehead  rose  splendidly 
to  the  occasion  in  spite  of  their  privileged  position  under  the 
act,  and  endorsed  the  Boston  resolutions.'  Their  benefits 
from  the  act  were  indeed  more  imaginary-  than  actual, 
"  Boston  being  the  grand  engine  that  gives  motion  to  all  the 
Mfheels  of  commerce  "  in  the  province  and  supplying  in  par- 
ticular an  entrepot  for  the  West  Indian  imports  of  those 
ports. ^  Twenty-eight  merchants  of  Marblehead  invited  the 
merchants  of  Boston  to  use  their  storerooms  and  wharves 
free  of  charge.*  Without  at  present  considering  the  atti- 
tude of  the  seaports  in  other  provinces,  other  towns  in 
Massachusetts  responded  favorably  to  the  appeal  of  Boston.^ 

The  town  of  Boston  faced  a  difficult  problem,  that  of 

^  May  i8.  Mass.  Spy,  May  19,  1774;  also  Bos.  Tozun  Recs.  {1770- 
1777),  pp.  174-175- 

"^  Essex  Gas.,  May  24,  1774;  Bos.  Gas.,  May  30.  The  Marblehead 
resolutions  omitted  mention  of  non-intercourse  but  expressed  willing- 
ness to  enter  any  "  rational "  agreement  that  might  be  generally 
adopted. 

'Letter  of  John  Scollay,  4  Am.  Ar/:h.,  vol.  i,  pp.  369-370;  address  of 
Salem  merchants,  Mass.  Spy,  June  23,  1774. 
*  Ibid. 

®  E.  g.,  the  towns  of  Gloucester,  Lunenburgh,  Salisbury  and  Glassen- 
burg  and  the  merchants  of  Newburyport  acted  before  the  end  of  June. 
Ibid.,  May  19,  1774;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp.  155,  233;  Bos. 
Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  viii.  p.  713;  vol.  x,  p.  802. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  315 

providing  labor  and  sustenance  for  the  hundreds  of  work- 
ingmen  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  closing  of  the 
port.  The  task  of  feeding  the  poor  was  somewhat  simpli- 
fied by  the  generous  donations  of  food  and  money  which 
poured  in  from  neighboring  towns  and  from  provinces  as 
far  away  as  South  Carolina.^  But  this  outside  aid  entailed 
a  responsibility  for  administering  the  donations  equitably; 
and  the  inevitable,  though  ill-founded,  charges  of  corrup- 
tion appeared."  The  committee  appointed  to  deal  with  the 
unemployment  question  resorted  to  all  sorts  of  expedients 
(such  as,  for  instance,  the  building  of  a  wharf  with  capital 
furnished  by  the  wealthier  citizens)  ;  but  the  best  results 
were  gotten  from  the  employing  of  men  to  repair  pave- 
ments, clean  public  docks,  dig  public  wells,  etc.,  from  the 
establishment  of  a  brickyard  on  town  land,  and  the  subsi- 
dizing of  cotton  and  flax  spinning.^ 

v(t\^hile  the  first  anger  aroused  by  the  receipt  of  the  Boston 
Fort  Act  was  still  high,  the  merchants  of  the  town  were 
prevailed  upon  by  the  committee  of  correspondence  to  sign 
an  agreement  for  severing  all  trade  relations  with  Great 
Britain  upon  condition  that  their  brethren  in  the  other  com- 
mercial provinces  should  embrace  the  same  measure.*  But 
of  what  they  did  in  haste  they  soon  repented  at  leisure. 
At  a  town  meeting  on  May  30,  the  merchants  and  trades- 

^  For  the  correspondence  of  the  Boston  committee  with  the  contrib- 
utors of  the  donations,  vide  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  1-278. 

'^  "  A  Friend  to  Boston"  in  N.  Y.  Joiirn.,  Sept.  15,  1774)  refutation 
of  the  committee,  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  277-2791. 

*  Bos.  Toivn  Recs.  {1770-1777),  pp.  I74-I75,  181,  185-189;  4  M.  H.  S. 
Colls.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  275-277. 

*  May  21,  1774.  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  iii,  p.  187.  This  action 
was  pressed  through  in  face  of  the  zealous  opposition  of  merchants 
whom  the  committee  of  correspondence  characterized  as  "the  tools  of 
Hutchinson  and  of  the  Commissioners."  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss:,  vol.  x, 
pp.  808-810. 


3i6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

men  attended  two  or  three  hundred  strong,  most  of  them 
determined  to  use  their  endeavors  to  secure  payment  for 
the  tea. 

But  [if  a  contemporary  may  be  believed]  so  artful  and  in- 
dustrious were  the  principal  heads  of  the  opposition  to  goz'- 
ernment,  that  they  placed  themselves  at  the  doors  of  the  hall 
and  told  the  tradesmen  as  they  entered  that  now  was  the  time 
to  save  our  country.  That  if  they  gave  their  voice  in  favor 
of  paying  for  the  tea,  we  should  be  undone,  and  the  chains  of 
slavery  rivitted  upon  us !  which  so  terrified  many  honest  well 
meaning  persons,  that  they  thought  it  prudent  not  to  act  at  all 
in  the  affair  .  .  } 

The  meeting  succeeded  in  adopting  a  mild  non-consumption 
agreement,  the  signers  whereof  agreed  not  to  purchase  any- 
British  manufactures  that  could  be  obtained  in  the  province 
and  to  boycott  those  who  conspired  against  the  measures 
of  the  town." 

The  impending  departure  of  Governor  Hutchinson  for 
England  and  the  arrival  of  the  new  governor,  Thomas 
Gage,  gave  the  merchants  and  conservatives  an  opportunity 
to  make  a  quasi-official  statement  of  their  principles  in  public 
form.  An  address  from  "  the  Merchants  and  Traders  of 
the  town  of  Boston  and  others  "  was  presented  to  Hutch- 
inson on  May  30.  This  document,  shrewdly  enough,  con- 
tained a  well-reasoned  criticism  of  the  Boston  Port  Act  at 
the  same  time  that  it  pledg'ed  the  signers  in  opposition  to 
the  plans  of  the  radicals.  It  praised  the  "  wise,  zealous, 
and  faithful  Administration  "  of  Hutchinson,  expressed  a 
belief  that  the  Boston  Port  Act  would  have  been  more  just 

^  Gray,  H.,  A  Few  Remarks  upon  Some  of  the  Votes  and  Resolutions 
of  the  Continental  Congress  .  .  .  (Boston,  1775),  pp.  6-7.  Reprinted 
in  Mag.  N.  Engl.  Hist.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  42-58. 

'Bos.  Town  Recs.  {.1770-1777),  pp.  175-176. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  317 

if  Boston  had  been  given  the  alternative  of  conforming  to 
its  conditions  within  a  specified  period  or  of  suffering  the 
harsh  consequences,  bore  solemn  testimony  against  popular 
tumults,  and  asked  Hutchinson  to  inform  the  king  that  the 
signers  of  the  address  would  gladly  pay  their  share  of  the 
damages  suffered  by  the  East  India  Company.^  The  paper 
was  signed  by  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  men,  of  whom 
sixty-three  were  merchants  and  shopkeepers  by  admission 
of  the  radicals  themselves  and  four  others  were  employees 
of  merchants.'  According  to  the  lawyer,  Daniel  Leonard, 
the  signers  consisted  "  principally  of  men  of  property, 
large  family  connections,  and  several  were  independant  in 
their  circumstances  and  lived  wholly  upon  the  income  of 
their  estates.  ...  A  very  considerable  proportion  were 
persons  that  had  of  choice  kept  themselves  from  the  polit- 
ical vortex  .  .  .  while  the  community  remained  safe  "  but 
now  rallied  to  the  cause  of  law  and  order. ^  When  five 
gentlemen  went  to  Governor  Gage  and  inquired  what  the 
value  of  the  tea  destroyed  was,  he  intimated  that  they  would 

^  Mass.  Sl>y,  June  2,  1774;  also  /  M.  IT.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xii,  pp.  43-44. 
The  address  of  welcome  of  the  merchants,  traders  and  others  to  the 
new  governor  expressed  substantially  the  same  sentiments,  condemning 
"  lawless  violences "  and  promising  support  in  reimbursing  the  East 
India  Company.  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  June  13,  1774.  One  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  signatures  were  attached.  Loyal  addresses,  purporting  to 
come  from  the  merchants,  traders  and  other  inhabitants  of  Marblehead 
and  of  Salem,  were  likewise  sent  to  the  two  gentlemen.  Curwen, 
Journal,  pp.  426-427,  431-432. 

*  A  complete  tabulation  shows  27  merchants  and  factors,  4  employees, 
26  shopkeepers,  7  distillers,  12  royal  officials,  6  retired  or  professional 
men,  20  artisans  or  mechanics,  5  farmers,  7  uncertain.  /  M.  H.  S. 
Procs.,  vol.  xi,  pp.  392-394.  A  number  of  the  merchants  had  made 
themselves  unpopular  in  the  earlier  non-importation  movement,  such  as 
William  Jackson,  Benjamin  Greene  &  Son,  Colburn  Barrell,  Theophilus 
Lillie,  James  Selkrig.  and  J.  &  P.  McMasters. 

»"  Massachusettensis  "  in  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  2,  1775. 


3i8 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


learn  when  either  the  town  of  Boston  in  its  corporate 
capacity  or  the  General  Court  applied  to  him/ 

Fortunately  for  the  merchants,  an  opportunity  came  ta 
them  to  retrace  the  step  they  had  taken  in  proposing  a  joint? 
agreement  of  non-intercourse  to  the  other  merchants  of  the 
commercial  provinces.  In  the  early  days  of  June,  word 
arrived  that  the  merchants  in  the  leading  ports  outside  of 
Massachusetts  were  not  willing  to  join  in  this  measure." 
The  members  of  the  trading  body  at  Boston  considered 
themselves  absolved  from  their  conditional  pact,  and  refused 
absolutely  to  accept  the  repeated  suggestions  of  Sam  Adams 
and  the  radicals  to  go  ahead  independently  in  the  matter. 
The  Reverend  Charles  Chauncy,  of  Boston,  voiced  radical 
opinion,  when  he  wrote  on  Alay  30,  1774,  with  reference  to- 
the  merchants : 

so  many  of  them  are  so  mercenary  as  to  find  within  themselves 
a  readiness  to  become  slaves  themselves,  as  well  as  to  be 
accessory  to  the  slavery  of  others,  if  they  imagine  they  may  by 
this  means  serve  their  own  private  separate  interest.  Our  de- 
pendence, under  God,  is  upon  the  landed  interest,  upon  our  free- 
holders and  yeomonry.  By  not  buying  of  the  merchants  what 
they  may  as  well  do  without,  they  may  keep  in  their  own 
pockets  two  or  three  millions  sterling  a  year,  which  would 
otherwise  be  exported  to  Great-Brittain.  I  have  reasons  to 
think  the  effect  of  this  barbarous  Port-act  will  be  [such]  an 
agreement  .  .  .^ 

Such  indeed  was  the  strategy  of  which  the  radicals  now 
availed  themselves.     Convinced  that  the  merchants  could 

^  Letter  to  Philadelphia  friend;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  380.  The  mer- 
chant, George  Erving,  for  instance,  was  willing  to  subscribe  £2000 
sterling  toward  a  reimbursement  fund  for  the  East  India  Company. 
I  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  viii,  p.  329. 

^"Y.  Z."  in  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  June  27,  1774;  "Candidas"' 
(Sam  Adams)  in  Bos.  Gaz.,  June  27,  and  Mass.  Spy.  July  7. 

'  2  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xvii.,  pp.  266-268. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  319 

not  be  relied  upon  to  adopt  the  policy  of  non-intercourse, 
they  decided  to  appeal  to  the  people  directly  over  their 
heads.^  On  June  5,  1774,  the  Boston  Committee  of  Cor- 
respondence adopted  a  form  of  agreement  for  country 
circulation  and  adoption,  which,  in  the  fulness  of  their 
political  sagacity,  they  named  the  "  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant."  ^  It  was  hoped,  no  doubt,  that  the  country 
people  would  be  inspired  by  recollections  of  the  doughty 
pact  which  their  Cromwellian  progenitors  had  made  against 
King  Charles  more  than  a  century  before.  The  object  of  the 
agreement  was  not  the  reform  of  commercial  legislation  but  ^ 
the  repeal  of  punitive  laws  "  tending  to  the  entire  subver- 
sion of  our  natural  and  charter  rights."  For  this  purpose, 
the  subscribers,  who  might  be  of  either  sex,  covenanted 
with  each  other  "  in  the  presence  of  God,  solemnly  and  in 
good  faith  "  to  suspend  all  commercial  intercourse  with 
Great  Britain  thenceforth,  and  neither  to  purchase  nor  use 
any  British  imports  whatsoever  after  October  i.  All  per- 
sons who  refused  to  sign  this  or  a  similar  covenant  were  to 
be  boycotted  forever,  and  their  names  made  public  to  the 
world. 

In  fathering  the  Covenant,  the  Boston  Committee  of 
Correspondence  acted  secretly,  without  authorization  of 
the  town,  and  without  intending  to  circulate  the  Covenant 
among  the  people  of  Boston.  In  truth,  it  was  the  purpose 
of  the  committee  to  have  the  Covenant  appear  to  be  the 
spontaneous  action  of  the  non-mercantile  population  of  the 

^  On  June  2  a  sub-committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  Joseph  Warren,  Dr. 
Benjamin  Church  and  Mr.  Greenleaf,  had  been  instructed  "to  draw  up 
a  Solemn  League  and  Covenant."  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  ix,  pp. 
763-764.  According  to  Sam  Adams,  the  committee  bestowed  "  care, 
pains,  repeated  and  continued  consideration  upon  a  subject  confessedly 
the  most  difficult  that  ever  came  before  them."  "  Candidus  "  in  Mass. 
Spy,  July  7,  1774.  For  text  of  the  Covenant,  vide  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post- 
Boy,  June  2"/;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  397-398. 


320 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


province.  Thus  the  radical  organ,  the  Boston  Gazette,  de- 
clared on  June  13  : 

We  learn  from  divers  Parts  of  the  Country  that  the  People  in 
general,  having  become  quite  impatient  by  not  hearing  a  Non- 
Importation  Agreement  has  yet  been  come  into  by  the  Mer- 
chants, are  now  taking  the  good  Work  into  their  own  Hands, 
and  have  and  are  solemnly  engaging  not  to  purchase  any  Goods 
imported  from  Great-Britain,  or  to  trade  with  those  who  do 
import  or  purchase  such  Goods.  .  .  . 

A  few  days  later,  the  committee  felt  no  c|ualms  in  declaring 
unequivocally  in  their  correspondence:  "this  Effectual  Plan 
has  been  origanated  and  been  thus  far  carried  thro'  by  the 
two  venerable  orders  of  men  stiled  Mechanicks  &  husband- 
men, the  strength  of  every  community."  ^ 
\y  The  merchants  importing  goods  from  England  were, 
almost  without  exception,  totally  opposed  to  the  Covenant 
when  they  learned  of  its  circulation  in  the  country  towais.^ 
A  formal  protest,  signed  by  many  merchants,  declared  that 
the  Covenant  was  "  a  base,  wicked  and  illegal  measure,  cal- 
culated to  distress  and  ruin  many  merchants,  shopkeepers 
and  others  in  this  metropolis,  and  affect  the  whole  commer- 
cial interest  of  this  Province."  ^    The  argument  was  taken 

^Letter  to  X.  Y.  Committee,  June  18,  1774;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol. 
X,  pp.  819-820.  Vide  also  Mass.  Spy,  June  30,  1774;  "  Candidus "  in 
ibid.,  July  7,  and  in  Bos.  Gas.,  June  27.  When  concealment  of  the 
truth  was  no  longer  possible,  the  committee  simply  claimed  that  the 
plan  had  been  "  intimated  to  them  by  their  brethren  in  the  country." 
Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  x,  pp.  822-824. 

^  Adams,  S.,  Writings  (Gushing),  vol.  iii,  p.  145;  letters  of  John  An- 
drews in  I  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  viii,  pp.  329-332;  "An  Old  Man"  in 
Mass.  Spy,  July  21,  1774. 

'  They  declared  that  the  staple  articles  of  trade  VN'ould  cease,  such  as 
oil,  pot  and  pearlash,  flax  seed,  naval  stores  and  lumber,  and  that  ship- 
building would  be  seriously  affected.  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  July  4, 
1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  490-491. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  321 

tip  by  many  newspaper  writers  in  the  mercantile  interest, 
who  declaimed  against  the  harebrained  scheme  and  under- 
handed methods  of  the  committee  of  correspondence/  The 
very  legahty  of  the  existence  of  the  committee  of  corres- 
pondence was  questioned  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  had 
been  appointed  in  November,  1772,  to  perform  a  particular 
task  and  its  tenure  could  not  continue  longer  than  the  end 
of  that  year  at  the  furthest." 

In  anticipation  of  the  gathering  storm,  the  radicals  has- 
tened to  call  a  town  meeting  on  June  17,  which  furnished 
the  committee  of  correspondence  with  the  formal  legal 
sanction  which  its  existence  had  lacked.  The  committee 
were  thanked  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  their  trust  and 
desired  to  continue  their  vigilance  and  activity.^  Though 
taken  by  surprise,  the  merchants  and  conservatives  deter- 
mined to  bring  about  the  discharge  of  the  committee  of 
correspondence.  After  a  number  of  secret  conferences, 
they  decided  that  the  effort  should  be  made  at  a  town  meet- 
ing on  Monday,  June  27.*     Great  numbers  of  both  parties 

'  The  whale  fishery  and  the  cod  fishery,  which  employed  so  many, 
would  be  ruined,  declared  some,  and  without  these  profits  merchants 
would  be  unable  to  pay  debts  owing  to  entirely  blameless  persons  in 
England.  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  June  23,  July  4,  1774.  How  could 
two-thirds  of  the  traders  in  the  seaports  live?  queried  "  Zach  Free- 
man." Ibid.,  July  18.  "  Y.  Z."  spoke  tearfully  of  his  "  sweet  little 
prattling  Innocents "  who  were  now  being  threatened  with  "  all  the 
Horrors  of  Poverty,  Beggary  and  Misery."  Ibid..  June  27.  Others 
pointed  out  that  the  boycott  feature  made  the  Covenant  "  as  tyrannical  as 
the  Spanish  inquisition."     Ibid.,  July  4,  18. 

'  Vide  particularly  the  protest  signed  by  John  Andrews,  Thomas 
Amory,  John  Amory,  Caleb  Blanchard,  Samuel  Eliot  and  four  others. 
Ibid.,  July  4,  1774. 

^  Ibid.,  June  20,  1774;  also  Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1770-T777),  pp.  \76-177. 

*  The  official  account  of  this  meeting  is  in  ibid.,  pp.  177-178;  also 
Mass.  Spy,  June  30,  1774.  For  other  contemporary  accounts,  vide 
"Candidus"  in  Mass.  Spy,  July  7;  Gage's  account,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  514-515;  letter  of  William  Barrell.  M.  H.  S.  Mss..  41  F  66;  anony- 
mous account  in  Mass.  Spy,  June  30. 


3-'^ 


THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 


attended,  and  Sam  Adams  was  chosen  moderator.  A  mo- 
tion was  passed  for  the  reading  of  all  letters  sent  by  the 
committee  of  correspondence  since  the  receipt  of  the  Boston 
Port  Act;  and  when  this  performance  promised  to  be  too 
lengthy,  another  motion  was  carried  for  confining  the  read- 
ing to  the  Covenant  and  letters  particularly  called  for.  This 
done,  ]\Ir.  [Harrison?]  Gray  offered  the  momentous  motion 
that  the  committee  of  correspondence  be  censured  and  dis- 
missed from  further  service.  Adams  now  voluntarily 
vacated  the  chair  until  the  subject  of  the  committee,  whereof 
he  was  chairman,  should  be  disposed  of;  and  a  moderate 
radical,  Thomas  Gushing,  was  chosen  in  his  stead.  The 
debates  which  ensued  lasted  far  into  dusk;  and  the  meeting 
was  adjourned  to  the  following  morning  to  continue  the 
discussion.  The  speakers  on  the  mercantile  side  marshaled 
forth  all  the  arguments  which  had  been  ventilated  in  the 
newspapers ;  and  even  some  of  the  more  radical  merchants 
complained  against  the  shortness  of  time  allowed  for  re- 
ceiving goods  from  England  before  the  Covenant  went  into 
effect.  Ardent  enthusiasm  and  a  well-knitted  organization 
now  served  well  the  purposes  of  the  radicals;  the  motion 
for  censure  was  lost  by  a  large  majority,  not  more  than 
fifty  or  sixty  hands  being  in  favor.  The  town  then  voted 
their  approval  of  "  the  upright  Intentions  and  .  .  .  honest 
Zeal  of  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  .  .  ."/  To  Gov- 
ernor Gage  the  whole  affair  appeared  to  be  clearly  a  case 
of  "  the  better  sort  of  people  "  being  "  out  voted  by  a  great 
majority  of  the  lower  class.*^' 

Defeated  in  their  main  purpose,  the  merchants  now  used 
such  means  as  were  yet  at  hand  to  discredit  the  Covenant. 
One  hundred  and  twenty-nine  inhabitants  of  the  town  signed 
a  protest  against  the  doings  of  the  town  meeting,  and  a 
second  protest,  differing  but  slightly,  appeared  with  eight 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  ^2\ 

signatures.^  Governor  Gage  also  issued  a  proclamation 
which  denounced  "  certain  persons  calling  themselves  a 
Committee  of  Correspondence  for  the  town  of  Boston," 
for  attempting  to  excite  the  people  of  the  province  "  to 
enter  into  an  unwarrantable,  hostile  and  traitorous  com- 
bination," and  which  commanded  all  magistrates  to  arrest 
all  persons  who  circulated  the  so-called  Covenant." 

The  disapproval  of  the  Boston  merchants  and  of  the 
government  served  only  to  increase  the  popularity  of  the 
Covenant  in  the  rural  districts.  At  Hardwicke,  a  magis- 
trate, brave  old  Brigadier  Ruggles,  announced  that  he  would 
conform  to  Gage's  proclamation  and  jail  any  man  who 
signed  the  paper;  whereupon  almost  one  hundred  men 
signed  and  left  him  powerless.^  Worcester  adopted  a  modi- 
fied form  of  the  Covenant,  inserting  the  date  August  i  in 
place  of  October  i  as  the  time  after  which  all  British  im- 
ports should  be  boycotted.*  The  Worcester  alteration  soon 
superseded  the  Boston  plan  in  popular  favor.  Exclusive  of 
the  places  already  named,  the  Covenant  in  one  form  or 
other  was  adopted  by  at  least  thirteen  towns,  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Continental  Congress  in  September,  1774.^ 
Many  other  towns  sympathized  with  the  intent  of  the  Cove- 
nant but  postponed  action  because  of  the  certainty  that  an 

^  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  July  4,  1774;  also  /  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xi, 
pp.  394-395. 

^  Mass.  Spy,  June  30,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  491-492.  The 
justices  of  the  County  of  Plymouth  also  adopted  an  address,  in  which 
they  promised  to  maintain  order  and  justice  in  face  of  all  illegal  com- 
binations. Mass.  Garj.  &  Post-Boy.  July  18,  1774;  also  Am.  Arch.,  vol. 
i,  pp.  515-516. 

*  Bos.  Gas.,  July  4,  1774. 

*•  Pickering  Papers,  vol.  xxxix,  p.  54. 

^  Athol,  Bernardston,  Billerica,  Braintree,  Brimficld,  Cape  Elizabeth, 
Charlton,  Colerain,  Gloucester,  Gorham,  Hopkinton,  Lincoln,  Shrews- 
bury.   Vide  correspondence  of  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  and  current  newspapers. 


324 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


interprovincial  congress  would  assemble  to  deal  with  the 
whole  question/  Of  serious  opposition,  there  was  little  or 
none.^ 

<^  The  covenant  movement  gained  further  impetus  by  reason 
of- the  fact  that  various  county  conventions  took  an  in- 
terest in  the  matter;  and  when  the  provincial  convention  of 
Massachusetts  met  in  October,  that  body  resolved,  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  the  month,  that  whereas  no  explicit  direc- 
tions had  yet  arrived  from  the  Continental  Congress  (which 
had  adjourned  but  two  days  before),  and  as  the  great 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  province  had  entered  into 
agreements  of  non-importation  and  non-consumption,  they 
earnestly  recommended  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Massachu- 
setts to  conform  to  these  regulations  until  the  Continental 
Congress  or  the  provincial  convention  should  direct  other- 
wise. The  convention  recommended  that  all  recalcitrant 
importers  be  boycotted,  and  declared  the  non-consumption 
of  "  all  kinds  of  East  India  teas,"  urging  the  local  commit- 
tees to  post  the  names  of  violators.^    The  action  of  the  pro- 

'  The  committees  of  the  maritime  towns  of  Marblehead  and  Salem 
named  this  as  the  cause  of  their  inactivity,  and  entered  the  further 
objection  that  Boston  herself  had  not  adopted  the  Covenant.  Bos.  Com. 
Cor.  Papers,  vol.  iii,  pp.  475-477,  491-492 ;  Pickering  Papers,  vol.  xxxiii, 
p.  96.  At  least  six  other  towns  announced  themselves  in  favor  of  the 
principles  of  the  Covenant,  but  declared  they  would  await  the  outcome 
of  the  Continental  Congress:  Acton,  Charlemont,  Charlestown,  Fal- 
mouth, Palmer,  Springfield.  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  iii,  passim; 
Pickering  Papers,  vol.  xxxiii,  passim. 

^  Forty-six  traders  and  freeholders  of  Easton  announced  to  Governor 
Gage,  under  their  signatures,  that  they  were  opposed  to  the  Covenant 
and  to  riots  and  routs.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  613-614;  also  Mass. 
Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  July  25,  1774.  At  Worcester,  the  conservatives  made 
an  abortive  attempt  to  unseat  the  local  committee  of  correspondence. 
Ibid.,  July  4.     Vide  also  Mass.  Spy,  Dec.  8. 

^4  Am,.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  840,  848;  also  Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  27,  Nov.  3, 
1774.  County  conventions  in  Berkshire,  Suffolk,  Plymouth  and  Bristol 
had  gone  furthest  in  their  resolutions  of  non-importation  and  non- 
consumption.     Ibid.,  July  28,  Sept.  15,  Oct.  6,  13. 


CONTEST  IN  'COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  r>2^ 

vincial  convention  capped  the  movement  that  had  begun  in 
a  small  way  through  locally  adapted  covenants.  Because 
of  the  lateness  of  the  occurrence,  however,  the  event  had 
no  practical  importance. 

Outside  of  Massachusetts  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant failed  to  make  headway,  although  the  Boston  Com- 
mittee urged  it  on  all  the  New  England  provinces.  The 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  Committee  sent  out  a  covenant  for 
adoption  closely  modeled  on  the  Worcester  plan,  but  it  was 
apparently  adopted  nowhere.^  The  towns  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut  objected  to  the  measure  as  inexpedient. 
As  Silas  Deane  wrote  to  the  Boston  Committee  in  behalf  of 
the  Connecticut  General  Assembly,  it  was  the  general  opin- 
ion that : 

A  congress  is  absolutely  necessary  previous  to  almost  every- 
other  measure  .  .  .  The  resolves  of  merchants  of  any  indi- 
vidual town  or  province,  however  generously  designed,  must 
be  partial  when  considered  in  respect  to  the  whole  Colonies 
in  one  general  view ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  every  measure- 
recommended,  every  resolve  come  into  by  the  whole  united 
colonies  must  carry-  weight  and  influence  with  it  on  the  mind 
of  the  people  and  tend  effectually  to  silence  those  base  insinu- 
ations ...  of  interested  motives,  sinister  views,  unfair  prac- 
tices and  the  like,  for  the  vile  purposes  of  sowing  seeds  of 
jealousy  between  the  Colonies  .  .  .- 

In  Rhode  Island  the  towns  of  Providence,  Newport  and 
Westerly  expressed  their  willingness  to  enter  into  a  plan  of 

'  2  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  481-486.  Vide  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  745-746. 

*  Letter  of  June  3,  1774;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Mch.  9,  1775;  also  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  303-304.  Vide  also  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
111-112,  251-253;  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  129-130;  Adam?,  S., 
Writings  (Gushing),  vol.  iii,  pp.  114-116,  125-126. 


326  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

joint  non-intercourse,  as  proposed  in  the  Boston  circular 
letter  of  ]\Iay  13;  and  Providence  instructed  her  deputies 
in  the  General  Assembly  to  propose  a  continental  congress 
as  the  best  means  of  devising  an  effective  plan/  In  Con- 
necticut New  Haven  responded  favorably  to  the  Boston 
circular  letter  on  May  23;  and  in  June,  town  meetings  in 
at  least  fourteen  towns  pledged  their  support  to  any  reason- 
able plan  of  non-intercourse  drawn  up  by  a  general  con- 
gress." In  almost  every  case  committees  of  correspond- 
ence were  appointed;  and  thus  this  occasion  marks  the  ex- 
tension to  Connecticut  of  the  plan  of  municipal  committees 
for  radical  propaganda. 

The  truth  was  that  the  Covenant  was  a  device  that  was 
particularly  well  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  the  radicals  of 
Massachusetts,  where  there  had  been  imminent  danger  that 
the  conserA'ative  merchants  would  stem  the  tide  of  opposi- 
tion. But  there  was  no  very  good  reason  why  other  New 
England  provinces  should  join  in  the  measure;  the  Boston 

'  These  instructions,  adopted  May  17,  were  the  first  instance  of  agi- 
tation for  a  continental  congress  by  a  pubHc  body.  R.  L  Col.  Rccs.,  vol. 
vii,  pp.  280-281,  289-290;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  343-344- 

^  Canterbury,  Farmington,  Glastenbury,  Groton,  Hartford,  Lyme, 
Middletown,  New  Haven,  New  London,  Norfolk,  Norwich,  Preston, 
Wethersfield,  Windham.  Five  towns  adopted  similar  resolves  later: 
Bolton,  Enfield,  Goshen,  Greenwich,  Windsor.  ]"ide  files  of  Conn.  Ga::., 
Conn.  Conr.  and  Conn.  Journ.  in  this  period.  Only  two  communities, 
Brooklyn  parish  in  Pomfret  and  the  town  of  Stonington,  entered  an 
immediate  agreement  of  non-consumption  along  the  Hnes  of  the  Cove- 
nant. Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  ii,  199-200,  215-218,  237-239.  As  late 
as  September  an  eflfort  was  made  by  the  Hartford  Committee,  while 
Silas  Deane  was  absent  at  the  Continental  Congress,  to  call  a  provin- 
cial convention  in  order  to  adopt  a  general  non-consumption  agreement 
for  the  province.  On  September  15.  delegates  from  four  counties 
gathered  to  consider  the  matter,  but  concluded  upon  vigorous  resolu- 
tions in  support  of  the  anticipated  measures  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress. Conn.  Coiir.,  Sept.  19,  1774;  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
151-152. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  2,27 

invitation  of  May  13  for  co-operative  measures  among  the 
provinces  commended  itself  as  a  more  feasible  mode  of  pro- 
cedure. As  the  movement  for  a  continental  congress  gained 
ground  in  other  provinces,  the  New  England  provinces  did 
not  lag  in  taking  effective  action  in  that  direction.  The 
radicals  used  the  instruments  which  came  readiest  to  hand. 
On  June  15  the  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island  chose 
delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress.^  In  Connecticut  the 
House  of  Representatives  delegated  the  function  to  the 
legislative  committee  of  correspondence,  which  designated 
delegates  to  the  congress  on  July  13.^  The  path  of  the 
radicals  in  New  Hampshire  was  beset  with  greater  difficul- 
ties. Early  in  July  the  legislative  committee  of  correspond- 
ence called  a  meeting  of  the  late  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Portsmouth  for  the  selection  of  dele- 
gates to  Congress;  but  when  the  gentlemen  convened,  Gov- 
ernor Wentworth  confronted  them  with  doughty  speech 
and  deterrent  proclamation,  and  they  betook  themselves  to 
the  tavern  where,  over  the  warming  victuals,  they  agreed  to 
call  a  provincial  convention  to  accomplish  what  they  had 
failed  to  do.  This  convention,  composed  of  representatives 
from  many  towns,  met  on  July  21  and  duly  chose  delegates 
to  the  congress.^ 

The  Boston  circular  letter  of  May  13  was  carried  to  the 
main  ports  throughout  the  commercial  provinces  by  Paul 
Revere.  Before  the  swift  rider  had  started  for  New  York, 
however,  a  copy  of  the  Port  Act  had  arrived  there;  and 
Isaac  Sears  and  Alexander  McDougall,  acting,  it  would 
appear,  for  the  ultra-radical  committee  of  correspondence 
appointed  during  the  anti-tea  commotions,  transmitted  to 

^  Mass.  Spy,  June  23,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  416-417. 

"  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  p.  138  n. 

'  Letters  of  Wentworth,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  516,  536,  745-746. 


328 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 


the  Boston  Committee  a  promise  of  ardent  support.  The 
writers  stated  that  they  had  "  stimulated  "  the  merchants  to 
meet  on  the  next  evening  in  order  to  agree  upon  non-inter- 
course with  England  and  a  limited  non-exportation  to  the 
West  Indies/  Apparently  they  had  no  suspicion  that  they 
would  not  be  able  to  carr}-  things  their  own  way;  but  they 
had  strangely  misapprehended  the  situation.  For  their  task, 
the  radicals,  confronted  with  heavy  odds,  needed  a  leader 
of  the  caliber  of  Sam  Adams.  Could  their  forces  have  been 
directed  by  a  man  of  dominant  personality,  with  a  mind 
skilled  in  political  artifice  and  a  single-minded  devotion  to 
a  great  idea,  the  story  of  the  subsequent  two  months  might 
have  been  different.  Instead,  these  qualities  were  possessed 
by  the  moderate  party;  and  the  fate  of  the  radical  cause 
was  in  the  hands  of  men  of  second-rate  ability,  who  sought 
to  promote  their  ends  by  a  species  of  indirection  and  who 
were,  in  the  disappointing  sense  of  the  word,  opportunists. 
McDougall  was  regarded  by  the  moderates  as  "the  Wilkes 
of  New  York,"  ^  Sears  as  "  a  political  cracker "  and  a 
"  quidnunc  in  politics ;"  ^  and  they  experienced  "  great 
pain  ...  to  see  a  number  of  persons  [such  as  John  Morin 
Scott  and  John  Lamb,  no  doubt]  who  have  not  a  shilling  to 
lose  in  the  contest,  taking  advantage  of  the  present  dispute 
and  forcing  themselves  into  public  notice."  *  As  for  the 
committee  of  correspondence,  it  was  composed  "of  eight 
or  ten  flaming  patriots  without  property  or  anything  else 
but  impudence."  ^     Colden  correctly  pictured  the  reaction 

^  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp.  343-346.    Letter  of  May  15. 

*  Colden  to  Dartmouth,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  346-347. 

^"  A  Merchant  of  New  York"  in  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Aug.  18,  1774. 
*"Mercator"  in  ibid.,  Aug.  11,  1774. 

*  Letter  from  New  York  in  London  Morning  Post,  reprinted  in  N.  Y. 
Journ.,  Aug.  25,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  299-302  n.  Vide 
also  Colden's  characterization,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  339-340. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  329 

which  had  set  in  since  the  destruction  of  the  tea  at  New 
York,  when  he  wrote  on  September  7,  1774:  "the  Gentle- 
men of  Property  and  principal  Merchants  attended  the 
meetings  of  the  populace,  when  called  together  by  their 
former  Demagogues,  who  thereby  have  lost  their  Influence 
and  are  neglected.  The  Populace  are  now  directed  by  Men 
of  different  Principles  &  who  have  much  at  stake."  ^ 

The  merchants'  meeting  was  duly  held  on  Monday  eve- 
ning. May  16,  and  the  radicals  who  attended  found  that, 
instead  of  having  their  own  way,  the  existing  committee 
was  discharged,  their  slate  for  a  new  committee  of  twenty- 
five  was  rejected,  and  a  new  committee  of  fifty,  proposed 
by  the  men  of  property,  was  nominated.^  The  committee 
thus  nominated  included  in  its  membership  such  men  as 
Sears  and  McDougall  as  a  concession  to  the  radicals,  but 
the  majority  of  the  members  were  "  the  most  considerable 
Merchts  and  Men  of  cool  Tempers  who  would  endeavour 
to  avoid  all  extravagant  and  dangerous  Measures."  ^  Some 
of  them  had  never  before  "  join'd  in  the  public  proceedings 
of  the  Opposition  and  were  induced  to  appear  in  what  they 
are  sensible  is  an  illegal  Character,  from  a  Consideration 
that  if  they  did  not  the  business  would  be  left  in  the  same 
rash  Hands  as  before."  *  Others,  such  as  the  chairman, 
Isaac  Low,  had  been  the  prime  movers  in  the  earlier  con- 
tests for  remedial  trade  legislation,  and  were  now  deter- 
mined to  master  the  whirlwind  which  they  had  then  so 
recklessly  sown.    At  least  twenty-five  of  the  fifty  committee- 

1  Letter  to  Dartmouth ;  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  359-360. 

"^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  393-394.  In  this  and  all  later  accounts  of 
New  York  poUtics,  the  author  has  frequently  and  gratefully  consulted 
Professor  Becker's  History  of  Political  Parties  in  the  Province  of 
New  York,  1760-1776. 

^  Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  346-347. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  339-341.  Vide  also  unsigned  letter,  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  i,  p.  302  n. 


330 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


men  had  been  among  those  merchants  and  traders  who  had 
"  exerted  themselves  in  a  most  extraordinary  manner  "  to 
cause  New  York  to  break  through  the  non-importation 
agreement  in  July,  1770/ 

A  mass  meeting  of  the  city  and  county  was  called  for 
Thursday,  May  19,  to  confirm  the  nominations  made  at  the 
merchants'  meeting."  When  the  citizens  assembled,  Gouv- 
erneur  Morris  stood  watching  them  from  the  balcony  of  the 
Coffee  House.  "On  my  right  hand,"  he  wrote  later,  "were 
ranged  all  the  people  of  property,  with  some  poor  depend- 
ants, and  on  the  other  all  the  tradesmen,  &c.,  who  thought 
it  worth  their  while  to  leave  daily  labour  for  the  good  of 
the  country."  ^  The  merchants  quickly  showed  their  supe- 
rior strength  by  the  selection  of  Isaac  Low  as  chairman  of 
the  meeting.  The  merchants'  slate  was  confirmed  with  little 
difficulty;  as  an  eleventh-hour  and  unimportant  concession 
to  the  radicals,  the  name  of  Francis  Lewis  was  added  to  the 
committee  by  unanimous  consent,  making  the  membership 
fifty-one.*  At  the  very  first  meeting  of  the  Fifty-One,  the 
Committee  of  Mechanics,  which  had  now  superseded  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  as  the  radical  organization,  sent  in  a  letter, 
according  their  concurrence  in  the  election  of  the  new  com- 
mittee.^ 

'  Vide  list  of  the  latter  in  Bos.  Gas.,  July  23,  1770.  Nineteen  members 
of  the  committee  later  became  avowed  loyalists.  Becker,  op.  cit.,  p. 
116,  n.  16. 

2  The  notice  of  the  meeting  declared,  by  way  of  reassurance,  that 
"  the  gentlemen  appointed  are  of  the  body  of  merchants ;  men  of 
property,  probity,  and  understanding,  whose  zeal  for  the  public  good 
cannot  be  doubted,  their  own  several  private  interests  being  so  inti- 
mately connected  with  that  of  the  whole  community  .  .  ."  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  i,  p.  293  n. 

'  Sparks,  Gonvemeur  Morris,  vol.  i,  pp.  23-26. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  294-295.  For  names  of  the  original  fifty, 
vide  ibid.,  p.  293, 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  295. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  331 

Gotivemeur  Morris,  who  himself  possessed  strong  mod- 
erate sympathies,  reflected  upon  the  election  of  the  Fifty- 
One  in  this  wise : 

The  spirit  of  the  English  Constitution  has  yet  a  little  influence 
left,  and  but  a  little.  .  .  .  The  mob  begin  to  think  and  to 
reason.  Poor  reptiles !  it  is  with  them  a  vernal  morning ;  they 
are  struggling  to  cast  off  their  winter's  slough,  they  bask  in 
the  sunshine,  and  ere  noon  they  will  bite,  depend  upon  it.  The 
gentry  begin  to  fear  this.  Their  Committee  will  .  .  .  deceive 
the  people,  and  again  forfeit  a  share  of  their  confidence.  And 
if  these  instances  of  what  with  one  side  is  policy,  and  with 
the  other  perfidy,  shall  continue  to  increase,  and  become  more 
frequent,  farewell  aristocracy.^ 

At  their  very  first  meeting  on  May  23,  the  Committee  of 
Fifty-One,  thus  constituted  and  controlled,  drew  up  a  reply 
to  the  Boston  circular  letter  of  May  13.  Phrased  with  ex- 
cessive caution,  this  answer  expressed  deep  concern  at  the 
dilemma  of  Boston,  but  declared  in  favor  of  postponing  all 
active  measures  until  an  interprovincial  congress  should  be 
held."  On  June  3,  they  sent  a  letter  to  the  supervisors  of  all 
the  counties,  proposing  the  appointment  of  committees  of 

^  Sparks,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  23-26. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  297-298.  No  course  could  have  been  more 
unsatisfactory  to  the  leaders  of  the  popular  party  at  Boston,  as  they  at 
once  made  clear.  The  Boston  Committee  responded  that,  even  if  the 
congress  assembled  with  the  greatest  possible  expedition,  it  would  be 
many  months  before  a  non-intercourse  could  become  effective,  whereas 
an  immediate  suspension  of  trade  would  have  "  a  speedy  and  irresis- 
table  operation"  upon  the  British  government.  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers, 
vol.  X,  pp.  807-808.  Furthermore,  the  Bostonians  were  aware,  even  if 
they  were  silent  on  the  point,  that  the  postponement  opened  a  wide 
door  for  the  importation  of  British  goods  at  New  York  in  anticipation 
of  a  possible  non-intercourse  later.  The  New  York  Committee  remained 
unmoved.    4  .4m.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  303-304;  A',  i'-  Jotirn.,  June  2,  1774 


332 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


correspondence  in  the  various  towns. ^  The  motive  of  the 
Fifty-One  seems  to  have  been  to  adapt  the  Massachusetts 
plan  of  radical  agitation  to  the  sterling  purposes  of  con- 
servative indoctrination.  They  took  this  step  with  the 
greater  assurance,  because  the  rural  towns,  except  Albany, 
had  been  notoriously  apathetic,  if  not  unsympathetic,  dur- 
ing the  troubles  over  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  Townshend 
duties.  The  instinctive  conservatism  of  the  great  land- 
owners, and  the  natural  intellectual  torpidity  of  the  small 
farmers,  undisturbed  by  the  yeast  of  a  constant  exercise  in 
local  government  or  by  the  machinations  of  a  group  of  city 
politicians  (as  in  Massachusetts),  seemed  in  this  instance 
to  make  the  rural  population  the  natural  allies  of  the  great 
merchants.  The  latter  failed  to  perceive,  however,  that  the 
mass  of  inland  people,  engaged  in  the  pressing  task  of  mak- 
ing a  livelihood,  would  be  inclined  to  be  unresponsive  to  any 
approaches  from  outside,  whether  from  the  one  side  or  the 
other;  either  that,  or,  as  the  canny  Golden  feared,  "the 
Business  in  the  Counties  will  be  left  to  a  few  forward  in- 
temperate Men,  who  will  undertake  to  speak  for  the  whole 

"   2 

Both  eventualities  seem  to  have  occurred.  The  invita- 
tion of  the  Fifty-One  met  with  little  respons'ig,  only  four 
towns,  it  would  appear,  appointing  committees  of  corres- 
pondence in  the  subsequent  two  months ;  and  three  of  these 
towns  belonged  to  Suffolk  County  at  the  eastern  end  of 
Long  Island,  which  had  been  founded  by  natives  of  Con- 
necticut. The  resolutions  of  these  towns  were  more  ex- 
treme than  the  Fifty-One  wished,  all  of  them  favoring 
some  form  of  non-intercourse  along  the  lines  proposed  by 

1  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  300-301. 

' "  Could  their  sentiments  be  fairly  known  I  make  no  doubt  a  large 
Majority  would  be  for  the  most  Moderate  &  Prudent  Measures."  Col- 
den  to  Tryon,  June  2,  1774;  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  345. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  303 

Boston/  In  Cumberland  County,  the  supervisors  deliber- 
ately withheld  the  letters  from  the  towns ;  but  when  in  Sep- 
tember the  existence  of  the  letters  became  known,  delega- 
tions from  two  towns  insisted  that  the  instructions  of  the 
Fifty-One  be  carried  out,  and  in  October  a  county  conven- 
tion was  held  at  Westminster,  which  adopted  vigorous  reso- 
lutions of  a  radical  character." 

Defeated  in  their  original  fight  for  a  friendly  committee 
of  correspondence,  the  radical  leaders  at  New  York  City 
now  undertook  to  turn  the  tables  on  the  moderates  by  de- 
vising a  method  of  selecting  delegates  to  the  impending 
congress,  who  would  go  pledged  to  carry  out  radical  ideas. 
Realizing  their  inability  to  attain  their  ends  through  the  aid 
of  the  moderate  majority  of  the  Fifty-One,  the  radicals 
now  began  to  claim  for  the  Committee  of  Mechanics  a  co- 
ordinate authority  in  nominating  a  ticket  of  delegates  to  the 
congress.^  On  June  29,  McDougall  made  a  motion  that  a 
ticket  of  five  names  should  be  proposed  by  the  Fifty-One, 
sent  to  the  Committee  of  Mechanics  for  their  concurrence, 
and  then  submitted  to  the  freeholders  and  freemen  of  city 
and  county  for  their  ratification.  When  the  discussion  be- 
came protracted,  a  vote  on  the  question  was  postponed  until 
the  next  meeting  on  July  4,  when  the  radical  plan  was 
swamped  by  a  vote  of  24  to  13.*     A  motion  providing  for 

'  Southhaven,  Easthampton  and  Huntington  in  Sufifolk  County; 
Orange  Town  in  Orange  County.  Becker,  op.  cit.,  pp.  136-138  and 
references.     Other  towns  may  have  acted. 

"^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  218-219,  1064-1066. 

'  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  election  of  the  Fifty-One  had  been  for- 
mally assented  to  by  the  Committee  of  Mechanics,  though  this  action 
came  without  any  soHcitation  from  the  moderates. 

*  This  vote  reveals  the  personnel  of  the  radical  minority,  as  follows : 
Abraham  Brasher,  John  Broome,  Peter  T.  Curtenius,  Joseph  Hallett, 
Francis  Lewis,  Leonard  Lispenard,  P.  V.  B.  Livingston,  Abraham  P. 
Lott,  Alexander  McDougall,  John  Moore,  Thomas  Randall,  Isaac  Sears, 
Jacobus  Van  Zandt.  However,  on  later  votes  Moore  sided  with  the 
majority.    Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  307-308. 


334 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


exclusive  nomination  by  the  Fifty-One  and  later  ratification 
by  the  freeholders  and  freemen  was  at  once  adopted  by 
nearly  the  same  numbers.  Sears  immediately  placed  in 
nomination  the  names  of  Isaac  Low,  James  Duane,  Philip 
Livingston,  John  Morin  Scott  and  Alexander  McDougall 
for  the  coveted  positions.  This  list  was  offered  by  the 
radicals  with  a  genuine  hope  of  its  adoption,  for  it  was 
composed  of  two  confirmed  moderates.  Low  and  Duane, 
merchant  and  lawyer;  the  merchant,  Livingston,  who  pos- 
sessed inclinations  both  ways ;  ^  and  the  two  out-and-out 
radicals.  But  the  majority  failed  to  see  any  occasion  for 
compromise;  and  they  substituted  the  moderates,  John  Jay 
and  John  Alsop,  lawyer  and  merchant,  for  the  two  radical 
nominees.  They  then  passed  a  motion  calling  a  public  meet- 
ing for  Thursday,  July  7,  to  concur  in  their  nominations  or 
to  choose  others  in  their  stead." 

The  radicals  had  an  interval  of  two  days  before  the  meet- 
ing of  the  seventh  in  which  to  retrieve  the  disaster  which 
had  again  been  visited  upon  them,  and  they  set  to  work  to 
accomplish  this  through  the  agency  of  the  Committee  of 
Alechanics.  On  Tuesday,  July  5,  that  body  took  under 
consideration  the  nominations  made  by  the  "  Committee  of 
Merchants,"  as  they  preferred  to  style  the  Fifty-One,  and 
placed  a  negative  on  Duane  and  Alsop,  substituting  Mc- 
Dougall and  Lispenard  in  their  stead.  They  issued  an  ap- 
peal to  the  public,  explaining  that  "  the  Committee  of  Mer- 
chants did  refuse  the  Mechanics  a  representation  on  their 
body,  or  to  consult  with  their  committee,  or  offer  the  names 
of  the  persons  nominated  to  them  for  their  concurrence," 
and  they  exhorted  "  the  mechanics  .  .  .  and  every  other 
friend  to  the  liberty  of  his  country  "  to  rally  to  the  support 

*  Vide  Becker's  note  on  Livingston,  op.  cit.,  p.  122,  n.  29. 
'^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  308-309. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  335 

of  the  new  ticket  at  the  Thursday's  meeting/  The  radicals 
next  arranged  a  pubHc  demonstration  in  the  Fields  on  the 
following  evening,  July  6,  the  night  before  the  meeting 
called  by  the  Fifty-One.  Naturally  no  moderates  attended; 
and  the  ''  numerous  meeting  "  under  the  chairmanship  of 
the  energetic  McDougall  adopted  unanimous  resolutions  in 
support  of  Boston,  and  forthwith  "  instructed,  empowered 
and  directed  "  the  New  York  delegates  to  the  congress  to 
agree  for  the  city  to  a  non-importation  and  to  "  all  such 
other  measures  "  as  Congress  should  deem  necessary  for  a 
redress  of  American  grievances."  The  radicals  expected  to 
accomplish  a  coup  d'etat;  obviously  the  giving  of  instruc- 
tions properly  belonged  to  the  public  meeting  regularly 
called  by  the  Fifty-One. 

The  labors  of  the  radicals  were  not  without  effect,  al- 
though the  results  fell  short  of  what  they  desired  to  accom- 
plish. When  the  public  meeting  assembled  Thursday  noon, 
it  was  unanimously  voted  that  a  canvass  of  the  freeholders, 
freemen  and  taxpayers  of  the  city  should  be  made  on  the 
two  tickets,  under  the  joint  supervision  of  the  Fifty-One 
and  the  Committee  of  Mechanics.^  The  moderate  majority 
had  thus  been  forced  to  recognize  the  Committee  of  Me- 
chanics and  to  extend  the  franchise  beyond  the  freeholders 
and  freemen ;  indeed,  all  later  canvasses  of  the  city,  with  a 
single  unimportant  exception,  were  on  the  basis  of  this  ex- 

^  Advertisement  of  July  6;  Broadsides  (N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc),  vol.  i. 

^iV.  Y.  Gas.,  July  11,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  3'i2-3i2. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  309-310.  Freemen  were  those  who  had  purchased 
the  privilege  of  engaging  in  certain  occupations  within  the  corporations 
of  New  York  and  Albany.  The  electoral  freeholders  were  those  who 
possessed,  free  of  incumbrance,  an  estate  in  fee,  for  life,  or  by  cour- 
tesy, of  the  value  of  £40.  The  proportion  of  electors  to  the  total  popu- 
lation was  about  12  per  cent  in  1790,  and  no  doubt  smaller  in  the  earlier 
years.    Becker,  op.  cit.,  pp.  lo-ii. 


336 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


tended  suffrage.  But  in  a  session  the  same  evening,  the 
Fifty-One  formally  disavowed,  by  the  usual  majority,  the 
proceedings  of  the  irregular  meeting  of  the  night  before  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  intended  to  reflect  on  the  Fifty- 
One  and  create  divisions  among  the  citizens ;  and  they  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  their  own  to  draw^  up  proper  in- 
structions/ While  a  motion  was  being  made  to  depart 
from  the  usual  custom  of  secrecy  maintained  by  the  Fifty- 
One  and  to  publish  this  vote  of  disavowal,  a  number  of  the 
radicals  withdrew  in  a  rage,  ordering  their  names  to  be 
struck  from  the  committee  roster  and  shouting  along  the 
streets,  "  The  Committee  is  dissolved,  the  Committee  is  dis- 
solved." =^ 

On  the  next  day  matters  between  the  radicals  and  the 
moderates  came  to  a  head.  The  conference  between  the 
sub-committees  of  the  Fifty-One  and  tlie  Committee  of  Me- 
chanics reached  an  absolute  deadlock  over  the  manner  of 
conducting  the  canvass  of  the  city;  ^  arrangements  for  a 
vote  thus  came  to  a  halt.  Later  in  the  day  eleven  radical 
members  of  the  Fift3^-One  announced  their  resignation  in  a 
public  statement,  alleging  as  their  chief  reason  the  vote  of 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  310-312. 

^"One  of  the  Committee"  in  ihid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  314-315;  also  A''.  Y. 
Gazetteer,  July  14,  1774. 

*  The  former  insisted  that  the  voters  must  make  a  blanket  choice 
between  the  two  lists.  The  latter  held  that  the  voters  should  select  any 
five  of  the  seven  candidates.  (It  will  be  recalled  that,  although  the  two 
tickets  contained  ten  names,  the  names  of  Low,  Livingston  and  Jay 
appeared  on  both  tickets.)  As  the  real  contest  lay  between  Duane  and 
Alsop  of  the  moderate  slate  and  McDougall  and  Lispenard  of  the 
radical  slate,  the  voting  of  a  split  ticket,  it  was  believed,  would  work 
to  the  benefit  of  McDougall,  who  was  a  man  of  considerable  popularity; 
while  it  was  not  thought  that  many  voters  would  be  willing  to  sacrifice 
both  Duane  and  Alsop  in  order  to  vote  for  him.  McDougall  withdrew 
his  candidacy,  alleging  the  unfairness  of  the  plan  of  the  Fifty-One. 
McDougall  to  the  Freeholders,  July  9,  1774;  Broadsides,  vol.  i. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  33*7 

disavowal  and  censure  passed  by  the  committee  on  the  pre- 
vious evening/  Until  July  13,  matters  remained  at  a 
deadlock,  each  side  apparently  awaiting  some  move  of  the 
other.  On  the  evening  of  July  13,  the  "Fifty-One" 
adopted  a  set  of  resolutions,  which  defined  their  platform 
of  public  policy  in  sharp  contrast  with  that  of  the  radicals. 
They  called  a  public  meeting  at  the  Coffee  House  for  Tues- 
day, July  19,  in  order  to  act  on  these  resolutions  and  to 
ratify  the  committee's  nominations  for  Congress.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  these  resolutions  marked  little  or  no  ad- 
vance beyond  the  non-committal  letter  written  by  the  Fifty- 
One  on  May  23  in  answer  to  the  Boston  circular  letter. 
On  the  issues  of  primary  concern,  they  asserted  that,  while 
all  delegates  ought  to  go  to  Congress  empowered  to  bind 
the  provinces  they  represented,  it  would  be  premature  for 
any  one  province  to  anticipate  Congress's  conduct  by  giving 
instructions;  that  only  dire  necessity  would  justify  commer- 
cial opposition;  and  that  a  non-importation,  only  partially 
observed  like  the  last  one,  would  be  worse  than  none  at  all." 
Of  the  public  meeting  of  July  19  no  satisfactory  account 
remains ;  but  it  is  clear  that  the  generalship  of  the  moder- 
ates proved  temporarily  inadequate.  The  resolutions  pro- 
posed by  the  "  Fifty-One "  were  rejected  as  "  void  of 
vigour,  sense  and  integrity;"  and  the  meeting,  determined 
to  decentralize  the  power  of  the  "  Fifty-One,"  entrusted 
the  formulation  of  new  resolutions  to  a  specially-created 
committee,  consisting  of  ten  radicals  and  five  moderates. 
As  for  the  ticket  of  delegates  submitted  to  the  meeting,  it 
would  appear  that  three  of  the  nominations  (Low,  Alsop 
and  Jay)   were  ratified  and  two  "  unexceptionable  friends 

*  Brasher,  Broome,  Hallett,  Lewis,  Lispenard,  P.  V.  B.  Livingston, 
Lott,  McDougall,  Randall,  Sears  and  Van  Zandt.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  313-314- 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  315;  Broadsides,  vol.  i. 


338 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


of  liberty "  were  added/  The  moderates  at  once  bent 
every  energy  to  discredit  completely  the  doings  of  the  public 
gathering.  At  a  session  in  the  evening  the  "  Fifty-One  " 
wrote  into  their  minutes  their  opinion  that  "  as  only  a  small 
proportion  of  the  citizens  attended  the  meeting  "  at  noon 
and  "  the  sentiments  of  the  majority  "  continued  "  uncer- 
tain," a  canvass  of  the  town  should  be  made  to  ascertain 
the  opinion  of  the  people  on  this  matter  and  also  on  the 
ticket  of  delegates  nominated  by  the  Fifty-One."  In  other 
words,  they  repudiated  entirely  the  public  meeting  which 
they  themselves  had  called.  Their  action  gained  moral 
weight  the  next  day  when  Low,  Alsop  and  Jay  declared 
that  they  could  not  deem  themselves  or  any  others  as  prop- 
erly nominated  as  delegates  until  the  sentiments  of  the  town 
had  been  ascertained  with  greater  precision.  Likewise,  four 
of  the  five  moderates,  appointed  on  the  new  committee  of 
fifteen  for  drawing  up  resolutions,  resigned  their  appoint- 
ments.^ This  committee,  however,  with  depleted  member- 
ship, went  ahead  with  its  work  and  prepared  resolutions 
for  public  ratification  which,  in  substance  if  not  in  spirit, 
resembled  the  radical  platform  of  July  6.*  But  the  mod- 
erates were  again  in  control  of  the  situation ;  and  when  the 

^N.  Y.  Gaz.,  July  25,  1774;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  315,  317-318- 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  315-317.  For  this  purpose  the  resolutions  of  the 
"Fifty-One"  were  slightly  modified  but  in  no  important  respect.  Vide 
summary  in  Becker,  op.  cit.,  p.  133,  n.  57. 

*  Duane,  the  fifth  moderate,  -was  not  in  town.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  317-318. 

*  The  tenth  resolution  promised  obedience  to  the  conclusions  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  and  the  twelfth  declared  that  it  was  "  highly 
necessary "  that  Congress  should  adopt  a  non-importation  with  Great 
Britain.  An  innovation  was  the  eleventh  resolution,  which  proposed  a 
provincial  convention  as  the  proper  mode  of  electing  delegates.  N.  Y. 
Gas.,  July  25,  1774. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


339 


meeting,  called  to  endorse  the  radical  resolutions,  assembled 
on  July  25,  "  nothing  decisive  was  resolved  upon."  * 
\  The  subsequent  events  leading  to  the  election  of  delegates 
can  be  explained  only  on  the  theory  that  the  radicals  real- 
ized that  the  moderates  were  the  dominant  factor  in  mold- 
ing public  opinion,  and  that  therefore  they  felt,  in  order  to 
save  any  part  of  their  platform,  they  must  resort  to  oppor- 
tunism." The  "  Fifty-One  "  at  their  meeting  of  July  25 
voted  that  a  poll  be  opened  on  Thursday,  July  28,  at  the 
usual  places  of  election  in  each  ward  to  elect  delegates  to 
Congress ;  and  the  Committee  of  Mechanics  were  invited  to 
co-operate  with  them  in  helping  to  superintend  the  election.^ ' 
On  the  following  day  a  group  of  radicals  sent  a  communi- 
cation to  the  delegates  nominated  by  the  Fifty-One,  prom- 
ising their  support  in  case  the  candidates  pledged  their 
"  utmost  endeavours  "  at  the  congress  in  support  of  a  non- 
importation agreement;  that  otherwise  a  rival  ticket  would 
be  nominated.  The  candidates  responded  that  they  would 
use  their  "  utmost  endeavours  "  to  promote  every  measure 
at  the  congress  that  might  "  then  "  be  thought  conducive  to 
the  general  welfare,  and  that  "  at  present "  they  believed 
that  a  "  general  non-importation  faithfully  observed " 
would  prove  the  best  means  for  procuring  redress.^  This 
reply  clearly  failed  to  make  the  concession  which  the  inter- 
rogators had  demanded  and  which  had  been  the  sine  qua  non 
of  the  radical  position  all  along.  Indeed  the  only  detail  in 
which  the  reply  differed  from  the  resolutions  proposed  by 

^  .V.  Y.  Gac,  Aug.  I,  1774. 

*  As  late  as  Oct.  5  Colden  believed  that  "  in  the  City  a  large  Majority 
of  the  People"  were  against  a  non-importation  agreement.  Letter 
Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  366-368. 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  318. 

*  Only  four  of  the  candidates  replied,  as  Duane  was  still  absent  frrm 
the  city.     Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  319-320;  also  A'.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Aug.  4,  1774. 


340 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


the  "  Fifty-One "  was  that  the  delegates  entertained  a 
present  opinion  that  a  non-importation  faithfully  observed 
v/ould  prove  the  most  effective  measure.  This  slight  con- 
cession was  apparentl}^  sufficient  to  save  the  self-respect  of 
the  radicals,  and  they  acquiesced  in  the  moderate  ticket. 
Accordingly,  at  the  Thursday's  poll,  Low,  Jay,  Livingston, 
Alsop  and  Duane  were  unanimously  chosen  for  the  city  and 
county  of  New  York. 

The  "  Fifty-One  "  lost  no  time  in  informing  the  rural 
counties  of  the  action  of  New  York  and  requested  them 
either  to  appoint  delegates  of  their  own  or  to  give  express 
authorization  to  the  New  York  delegates  to  act  for  them.^ 
This  appeal  brought  somewhat  better  results  than  the  earlier 
request  for  the  formation  of  committees  of  correspondence, 
although  it  is  clear  that,  as  before,  affairs  were  carried 
through  "  by  a  very  few  Persons,  who  took  -upon  them- 
selves to  act  for  the  Freeholders."  "  Nevertheless,  the  pro- 
posal went  to  the  counties  with  the  seal  of  approval  of  the 
wholl}^  moderate  committee  at  New  York  and  thus  elicited 
interest  from  the  large  landholders  as  well  as  the  more 
volatile  elements  in  the  population.  Only  three  counties 
elected  delegates  of  their  own — the  New-England-infected 
county  of  Suffolk  and  the  nearby  counties  of  Kings  and 
Orange.  Golden  was  informed  by  a  person  present  at  the 
Orange  County  meeting  that  not  twenty  men  were  present 
for  the  election,  though  the  county  contained  more  than 
one  thousand  freeholders.^  In  Kings,  it  would  appear  that 
two  congenial  souls  gathered;  one  was  chosen  chairman, 
the  other  clerk ;  and  the  latter  certified  to  Congress  that  the 
former,  Simon  Boerum,  was  unanimously  elected  to  repre- 

^  July  29,  1774.     4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  322.     For  the  action  of  the 
counties,  vide  Becker,  op.  cit,  pp.  139-141,  and  references. 
'  Golden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  366-368. 
» Ibid. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  941 

sent  the  county/  Four  counties — Albany,  Dutchess,  Ulster 
and  Westchester — adopted  the  alternative  plan  proposed  by 
the  "  Fifty-One,"  and  in  a  more  or  less  regular  fashion 
authorized  the  city  delegates  to  act  for  them.  Thus,  includ- 
ing New  York  County,  eight  counties  in  all,  "  representing 
a  great  majority  of  this  Colony,  whether  this  is  determined 
by  Counties,  inhabitants,  wealth  or  the  number  of  members 
they  send  to  the  General  Assembly,"  took  action  favorable 
to  the  congress,  of  a  more  or  less  representative  character.^ 
Six  counties  remained  unresponsive  to  the  appeal  of  the 
"  Fifty-One." 

The  progress  of  eventslat  Philadelphia)  when  news  of  the 
Boston  Port  Act  arrived  there,  resembled  that  which  had 
occurred  at/T?ew  York.f'^he  moderate  element,  which  had 
always  had  a  strong  hold  on  the  city  and  province,  was 
composed  chiefly  of  the  great  importers  of  British  goods 
and  the  generality  of  the  Quaker  sect  to  which  most  of 
them  belonged.  This  party,  heartily  condemning  the  de- 
struction of  the  tea  at  Boston  and  likewise  disapproving  of 
the  punitive  measures  of  Parliament,*  believed  that  the  only 
proper  method  of  opposition  was  a  memorial  or  remon- 
strance drawn  up  by  the  Assembly;' a  few  of  them  were 
willing  to  favor  an  interprovincial  congress  if  its  activities 
were  limited  to  the  single  function  of  presenting  a  petition 
of  grievances.  I  The  radicals,  on  the  other  hand,  led  by  the 
resourceful  Charles  Thomson,  \  were  determined  to  make 
immediate  common  cause  with  Boston,  and,  through  pop- 
ular meetings,  to  force  Philadelphia  as  far  in  that  direction 
as  they  could,  i  John  Dickinson,  by  his  earlier  leadership  of 

'  Joseph  Galloway  repeated  this  tale  on  the  authority  of  "  almost  all 
the  Delegates  of  New  York."  The  Examination  of  Joseph  Galloway, 
.  .  .  before  the  House  of  Commons  .  .  .  (London,  1780),  pp.  11,  66. 

2  "To  the  Publick,"  Jan.  18,  i775;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1188-1189. 


342  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  trade-reform  movement  and  his  more  recent  abstention 
from  pubhc  affairs,  possessed  the  confidence  of  both  sides. 
Being  the  most  influential  man  then  in  the  province,  his 
presence  at  a  meeting  of  protest  was  deemed  highly  desir- 
able by  the  radicals,  his  support  of  their  measures  infinitely 
more  so. 

When  Paul  Revere  arrived  on  May  19  with  the  Boston 
circular  letter,  Thomson  and  two  fellow-spirits,  Joseph  Reed 
and  Thomas  Mifflin,  proceeded  at  once  to  get  in  touch  with 
Dickinson/  A  public  meeting  having  been  called  for  the 
next  evening  (May  20),  the  three  men  took  dinner  with 
Dickinson  at  his  country  home  earlier  in  the  same  day,  a 
pohtico-gastronomic  device  which  has  always  been  found 
to  be  of  great  utility  by  politicians.  As  they  sat  over  their 
cups  and  conversed  afterward,  the  men  urged  Dickinson  to 
attend  the  meeting  and  take  an  active  part  in  behalf  of  op- 
pressed Boston,  reminding  him  that  the  present  hostility  to 
parliamentar).'  encroachment  had  been  largely  created  by  his 
own  earlier  efforts.  Dickinson  offered  sundry  excuses, 
having  himself  disapproved  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  and 
appearing  to  feel  uncertain  as  to  what  lengths  they  wished 
to  carry  opposition.  At  last  he  seemed  to  consent  to  attend, 
provided  that  he  would  be  allowed  to  carry  through  mod- 
erate measures.  Thomson,  suspecting  that  Dickinson  was 
reluctant  to  play  only  "  a  second  part,"  proposed  that  Reed, 
more  conservatively  inclined  than  the  others,  should  open 
the    meeting,    Mifflin   and    he   would    follow    with    fervid 

'  This  account  is  based  chiefly  on  Thomson's  letter  to  Drayton,  writ- 
ten many  years  later,  which  purported  to  reveal  "  the  secret  springs 
and  reality  of  actions  "  at  this  time.  Stille,  Life  of  Dickinson,  pp.  340- 
344.  However,  the  lapse  of  years  before  the  letter  was  written  has 
made  it  necessary  to  utilize  other  narratives  to  correct  errors  of  view 
and  fact,  particularly :  Reed,  W.  B.,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Joseph 
Reed  (Philadelphia,  1847),  vol.  i,  pp.  65-67;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
340-341 ;  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxxiii,  pp.  336-339;  Stille,  op.  cit.,  pp.  107-108. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  343 

speeches  advocating  co-operation  with  Boston,  and  Dick- 
inson should  close  with  a  plea  for  temperate  measures. 
Whether  indeed  vanity  was  the  cause  of  Dickinson's  hesi- 
tation, or  a  suspicion  of  the  good  faith  of  the  intriguers,  is 
not  clear.  At  any  rate,  this  plan  being  agreed  upon,  Dick- 
inson accompanied  Thomson  that  evening,  the  other  men 
having  gone  ahead  in  order  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  col- 
lusion. 

A  relatively  small  number,  not  more  than  two  or  three 
hundred  inhabitants,  were  in  attendance  at  the  meeting; 
and  the  prearranged  program  was  carried  through  as 
planned.  After  reading  the  Boston  circular  letter,  Reed 
addressed  the  body  with  ''moderation  but  in  pathetic  terms," 
proposing  that  the  governor  be  asked  to  call  the  Assembly 
to  petition  for  a  redress  of  grievances;  Mifflin  spoke  next 
with  "  warmth  &  fire;"  Thomson  followed  with  an  ardent 
plea  "  for  an  immediate  declaration  in  favour  of  Boston  & 
making  common  cause  with  her."  ^  "  Great  clamour  was 
raised  against  the  violence  of  the  measures  proposed." 
Dickinson  now  rose  and  lent  his  efforts  in  support  of  Reed's 
motion,  speaking  with  "  great  coolness,  calmness,  modera- 
tion and  good  sense."  Dickinson's  motives  are  not  clear; 
but  Governor  Penn  was  probably  right  when  he  averred 
that :  "  the  movers  of  this  extraordinary  measure  had  not 
the  most  distant  expectation  of  succeeding  in  it  [because  of 
the  certainty  of  the  governor's  refusal],  but  that  their  real 
scheme  was  to  gain  time  by  it  to  see  what  part  the  other 
Colonies  will  take  in  so  critical  a  conjuncture."  ^ 

A  number  of  persons  were  present  who  had  never  before 
attended  public  meetings,  among  them  the  importer,  Thomas 
Wharton,  and  Dr.  Smith,  provost  of  the  College  of  Phila- 

^  Thomson   fainted  in  the  midst  of  his  speech,  "  for  he  had  scarce 
slept  an  hour  two  nights  past." 
*4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  367-368. 


344  ^^-E  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

delphia;  arxd  these  men  helped  to  carry  the  day  for  the 
Reed-Dickinson  motion.  If  Thomson  was  surprised  at  the 
outcome  of  his  scheme,  he  at  least  tried  to  recover  such 
ground  as  he  could  by  moving  that  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  answer  the  Boston  letter ;  and  when  that  carried, 
a  slate  of  radicals  was  handed  to  the  chair  for  submission 
to  the  meeting.  A  list  representing  the  other  party  was 
submitted  at  the  same  time ;  and  great  confusion  ensued  as 
to  which  list  should  be  voted  on  first.  At  length  it  was 
proposed  that  the  two  lists  be  combined  to  compose  the  com- 
mittee; and  this  was  accordingly  done,  with  the  under- 
standing that  the  committee  should  be  altered  at  a  later 
meeting  of  inhabitants. 

'  The  committee  of  nineteen,  thus  selected,  was  dominated 
by  the  moderates,  and  fairly  represented  the  sentiment  of 
the  city.^  The  letter  sent  to  Boston  on  May  21  frankly  re- 
flected this  cautious  spirit.  With  circumspect  phrase,  the 
committee  conceded  that  Boston  was  suffering  in  the  com- 
mon cause  but  hesitated  to  venture  further  expressions  in- 
asmuch as  "  the  sense  of  this  large  city  "  had  not  yet  been 
ascertained,  and  even  when  this  were  done,  the  "  populous 
province  "  had  yet  to  express  itself.  They  took  occasion 
to  express  their  distaste  for  the  Boston  Tea  Party  by  de- 
claring that  if  compensating  the  East  India  Company 
"  would  put  an  end  to  this  unhappy  controversy,  and  leave 
us  on  the  footing  of  constitutional  liberty  for  the  future,  it 
is  presumed  that  neither  you  nor  we  could  continue  a  mo- 
ment in  doubt  what  part  to  act."  Finally,  they  had  "  reason 
to  think  "  that  it  would  be  most  agreeable  to  the  people  of 
Pennsylvania  to  summon  a  general  congress  to  send  a  peti- 
tion of  rights  to  the  king,  and  that  the  Boston  plan  of  non- 
intercourse  should  be  reserved  as  *'  the  last  resource."  " 

1  Vide  letter  of  George  Clymer;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  406-407. 

"  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  341-342;  also  Pa.  Gas.,  June  8,  1774.    The  letter  was 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  345 

The  radical  leaders  backed  the  petition  for  calling  the 
Assembly  in  apparent  good  faith,  in  order  "  to  convince  the 
pacific  [Thomson  confessed  afterward]  that  it  was  not  the 
intention  of  the  warm  spirits  to  involve  the  province  in  the 
dispute  without  the  consent  of  the  representatives  of  the 
people."  As  they  expected,  the  governor  refused  the  peti- 
tion, though  it  was  signed  by  almost  nine  hundred  people.^ 
They  now  urged  a  large  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  public 
to  choose  a  new  committee  and  to  take  further  action.  As 
the  Nineteen  showed  no  disposition  to  proceed  to  that  step, 
notices  were  posted  for  a  meeting  of  the  mechanics  of  the 
city  and  suburbs  on  the  evening  of  June  9  in  order  to 
organize  themselves  and  to  appoint  a  committee  of  their 
own.  This  maneuver  had  the  desired  effect.  When  the 
twelve  hundred  workingmen  assembled  on  Thursday  night, 
the  chairman  was  able  to  inform  them  that  the  Nineteen 
had  sent  word  that  a  mass  meeting  of  the  city  and  county 
would  be  called  in  the  near  future  to  choose  "  one  Grand 
Joint  Committee."  Whereupon,  the  gathering  decided  to 
take  no  action  "  at  present."  ^ 

The  moderates  determined  to  control  the  action  of  the 
mass  meeting;  and  in  order  to  do  this  it  was  necessary  to 

written  by  Dr.  Smith.  The  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  re- 
sponded in  much  the  same  spirit  they  did  to  the  New  York  epistle, 
which  had  been  written  about  the  same  time.  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  417-420.  Sam  Adams  wrote  privately  to  Thomson:  "The 
Trade  will  forever  be  divided  when  a  Sacrifice  of  their  Interest  is 
called  for.  ...  Is  it  not  necessary  to  push  for  a  Suspension  of  Trade 
with  Great  Britain  as  far  as  it  will  go,  and  let  the  yeomanry  ...  re- 
solve to  desert  those  altogether  who  will  not  come  into  the  Measure?" 
JVritings  (Cushing),  vol.  iii,  p.  124.  Note  the  approving  attitude  of 
the  N.  Y.  Committee  with  reference  to  the  Philadelphia  letter.  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  258. 

*  Stille,  op.  cit.,  pp.  344-345;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  391-392. 

^  Pa.  Gas..  June  15.  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  405-406. 


346  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

gain  the  support  of  the  body  of  the  Quakers  who  "  had  an 
aversion  to  town  meetings  &  always  opposed  them."  Tliere- 
fore  the  Nineteen  called  into  an  informal  caucus  six  repre- 
sentatives of  each  religious  society  in  the  city;  and  this 
body  agreed  upon  the  presidents  of  the  meeting,  the  speak- 
ers "  who  were  obliged  to  write  down  what  they  intended 
to  say  &  submit  their  several  speeches  to  the  revision  of  the 
presidents,"  the  nature  of  the  resolutions  to  be  adopted, 
and,  finally,  the  personnel  of  the  new  committee.^  Upon 
their  ticket  they  thoughtfully  placed  seventeen  members  of 
the  existing  committee,"  including  Dickinson  as  chairman, 
and  chose  twenty-seven  others  from  their  respective  relig- 
ious organizations.  From  another  point  of  view,  the  list 
contained  a  clear  majority  of  moderate  merchants  and  pro- 
fessional men,  but  the  radical  leaders  still  held  membership 
and  at  least  six  mechanics  were  included.  The  spirit  con- 
trolling the  proposed  membership  was  well  expressed  by 
Thomas  Wharton  when  he  explained  that  the  reason  he 
permitted  his  name  to  be  used  was  "  a  sincere  desire  in 
myself  to  keep  the  transactions  of  our  city  within  the  limits 
of  moderation  and  not  indecent  or  offensive  to  our  parent 
state."  ' 

In  view  of  these  preparations,  the  meeting  of  the  city 
and  county  on  June  i8  was  hardly  more  than  a  formality, 
although  probably  only  a  handful  of  the  great  throng  real- 

^  Thomson's  account  in  Stille,  op.  cit.,  p.  344;  Thomas  Wharton's 
account,  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxxiii,  pp.  436-437;  Dr.  Smith's  Notes  and 
Papers  (Hist.  Soc.  Pa.  Mss.),  pp.  9-1 1. 

^  Joseph  Fox  and  John  Cox  were  left  out. 

*  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxxiii,  pp.  436,  439.  Likewise,  Dr.  Smith  declared, 
on  a  later  occasion,  that  he  would  remain  on  the  committee  as  long  as 
he  could  be  "  of  any  Use  in  advising  Measures  consistent  with  the 
Principles  I  profess  and  that  Allegiance  and  subordination  which  we 
owe  to  the  Crown  and  Empire  of  Great  Britain."  Notes  and  Papers, 
pp.  17-18. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  347 

ized  i^i  Two  resolutions  were  adopted,  declaring  that  Bos- 
ton was  suffering  in  the  common  cause  and  that  a  congress 
of  deputies  from  the  colonies  was  the  proper  way  of  ob- 
taining redress  of  grievances.  No  mention  was  made  of 
the  Boston  proposal  for  non-intercourse,  j  The  ticket  of 
forty-four  names,  prepared  by  the  caucus,  was  elected  with 
little  difficulty,  although  it  w^ould  appear  that  James  Pem- 
berton,  a  pillar  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  withdrew  his 
name  at  once,  thus  leaving  f orty- three. ^  This  committee 
was  instructed  to  correspond  with  the  rural  counties  and 
with  the  sister  provinces,  and  to  devise  a  means  of  choosing 
delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress.  The  next  few  weeks 
saw  the  establishment  of  committees  of  correspondence  in 
most  of  the  counties  and  the  adoption  of  resolutions  for  an 
interprovincial  congress  as  proposed  by  the  Forty-Three  at 
Philadelphia.^ 

<^The  Forty-Three  were  as  moderate  in  temper  as  the 
Fifty-One  of  New  York  and  strove  for  the  same  objects./ 
But  under  the  gracious  leadership  of  the  chairman.  John 
Dickinson,  a  sharp  clash  was  avoided  between  the  radical 
minority  of  the  committee  and  the  dominant  element;  and 
indeed  the  two  factions  found  it  to  their  interest  to  unite 
forces,  upon  most  occasions,  against  a  common  enemy. 
This  common  foe,  of  which  there  was  no  exact  counterpart 
in  New  York,  was  the  strongly  consolidated  conservative 
group  entrenched  in  the  lower  house  of  the  Assembly  under 
the  leadership  of  Joseph  Galloway,  the  speaker.     Galloway 

^  His  name  is  included  in  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  426-428,  but  not  in 
the  newspaper  accounts:  Pa.  Gas.,  June  22,  1774;  Pa.  Journ.,  June  22; 
Pa.  Packet,  June  27.  For  Pemberton's  sentiments,  vide  statement  of 
Quakers.  May  30,  1774;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  365-3^,  and  his  letter 
in  Sharpless,  Qtiakers  in  Revolution,  pp.  107-109. 

*  From  June  18  to  July  13  committees  were  appointed  in  the  counties 
of  Chester,  Northampton,  Berks,  York.  Bucks,  Lancaster,  Bedford, 
Cumberland  and  Chester.    Tide  files  of  Pa.  Gaz.,  and  Pa.  Journ. 


348  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

had  long  been  an  opponent  of  Dickinson  in  provincial  poli- 
tics over  the  issue  of  proprietary  vs.  royal  government  for 
Pennsylvania;  he  had  upon  one  occasion  declined  a  chal- 
lenge from  Dickinson,  but  the  two  men  fought  many  a 
wordy  duel  in  broadside  and  newspaper/  Like  many  an- 
other gentleman  of  wealth  and  prestige  who  chose  the 
British  side  when  the  war  broke  out,  Galloway  believed  in 
the  justice  of  many  of  the  American  demands.  He  was  a 
constructive  critic  of  the  colonial  policy  of  the  home  gov- 
ernment and  believed  that  alleviation  could,  and  should 
properly,  come  only  through  the  traditional  and  legal  chan- 
nel of  legislative  memorials  to  Parliament.  Efforts  at  pop- 
ular control  through  extra-legal  action  were  to  him  a  species 
of  anarchy,  and  he  held  himself  aloof  from  all  popular 
movements  whatever  their  purpose."  Confronted  with  a 
popular  movement  of  continental  proportions  and  alarmed 
by  the  vigorous  and  unusual  measures  of  Parliament  against 

^Baldwin,  E.  H.,  "Joseph  Galloway,  the  Loyalist  Politician,"  Pa. 
Mag.,  vol.  xxvi,  particularly  pp.  161-191. 

'  Says  Galloway's  biographer :  "  With  a  conservatism  natural  to 
wealth,  and  with  inherited  aristocratic  tendencies,  Mr.  Galloway  ob- 
served with  no  small  concern  the  growth  of  republican  ideas.  That 
there  could  be  any  true  liberty,  or  any  safety  even,  under  a  democracy, 
or  what  he  considered  was  nearly,  if  not  quite,  the  same  thing,  mob' 
rule,  he  believed  impossible.  It  was  with  no  small  degree  of  appre- 
hension, therefore,  that  he  viewed  the  growing  differences  between 
Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies.  With  a  property-holder's  natural 
aversion  to  taxation,  and  with  a  realization  of  the  injustice  which 
might  result  from  measures  of  taxation  by  Parliament,  he  aided  in  all 
ways  that  he  considered  proper  to  remove  the  causes  of  complaint. 
The  very  suggestion  that  the  remedy  for  the  troubles  lay  in  independ- 
ence was  repugnant  to  him.  The  remedy  lay  rather  in  a  closer  union 
with  the  mother  country.  The  political  experiences  of  Mr.  Galloway  in 
Pennsylvania  made  him  naturally  suspicious  of  the  intentions  of  the 
noisy  elements  among  the  people,  and  he  soon  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  ultimate  independence  was  their  aim ;  at  least  their  conduct  could 
lead  to  nothing  else.  Hence  he  determined  to  exert  his  best  efforts 
to  prevent  such  a  deplorable  occurrence."     Ibid.,  p.  440. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


349 


Boston,  Galloway  was  now  willing  to  favor  an  interprovin- 
-cial  congress  if  it  should  be  composed  of  delegates  chosen 
by  the  members  composing  the  popular  branches  of  the  sev- 
eral provincial  legislatures.  Such  a  congress,  he  believed, 
might  formulate  a  plan  of  "  political  union  between  the  two 
countries,  with  the  assent  of  both,  which  would  effectually 
secure  to  Americans  their  future  rights  and  privileges."  ^ 
^s  The  policy  of  the  Forty-Three  was  to  conciliate  and  unite 
all  factions  in  the  province  in  support  of  the  approaching 
congress.^  Therefore,  although  the  mere  existence  of  an 
extra-legal  committee  represented  a  principle  hateful  to  the 
Galloway  party,  the  Forty-Three  adopted  a  plan  of  action 
which  enlisted  the  co-operation  of  Galloway  almost  in  spite 
of  himself.  The  Forty-Three  had  been  instructed  by  the 
public  meeting  to  devise  a  means  of  ascertaining  the  sense 
of  the  province  and  of  electing  delegates  to  the  Continental 
Congress.  At  a  meeting  on  June  27,  they  decided  that  they 
would  ask  Speaker  Galloway  to  call  the  members  of  the 
House  together  for  an  unofficial  session  to  consider  the 
alarming  situation,  and  that  they  would  summon,  for  the 
same  time,  a  convention  of  county  committees  "  to  consult 
and  advise  on  the  most  expedient  mode  of  appointing  dele- 
gates for  the  general  congress  and  to  give  their  weight  to 
such  as  may  be  adopted."  ■  This  latter  body,  the  radical 
leaders  had  already  learned  "  under  colour  of  an  excursion 
of  pleasure,"  ^  would  be  definitely  radical  in  its  composition, 
for  in  it  the  western  counties  would  have  a  much  larger 
voice  than  under  the  unfair  system  of  representation  main- 

'  Vide  letter  signed  by  Galloway  and  three  others  as  members  of  the 
committee  of  correspondence  of  the  Assembly.  Pa.  Gas.,  July  13,  1774; 
also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  485-486.  Cf.  the  scathing  comment  of  a 
New  York  newspaper  writer.    Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  486  n. 

^  Pa.  Gaz.,  June  29,  July  6,  1774;  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement 
in  Pa.,  pp.  173-175- 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  p.  434.     Vide  also  ibid.,  p.  726. 


350  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

tained  by  the  House  of  Representatives.^  Thus,  their  ob- 
ject was  to  leave  the  actual  appointment  of  the  delegates  to 
the  members  of  the  House,  as  the  Galloway  party  wished, 
but,  through  the  popular  convention,  to  dictate  the  terms 
upon  which  the  delegates  should  be  chosen. 

The  governor  made  unnecessary  the  informal  assembling 
of  the  House  by  summoning  a  legislative  session  for  Mon- 
day, July  1 8,  on  the  pretext  of  some  Indian  disturbances. 
When,  therefore,  the  Forty-Three  sent  their  circular  letter 
to  the  counties,  they  noted  this  fact,  and  asked  the  provin- 
cial convention  to  assemble  on  July  15  "in  order  to  assist 
in  framing  instructions,  and  preparing  such  matters,  as 
may  be  proper  to  recommend  "  to  the  members  of  the 
House."  ^  For  the  next  several  weeks,  newspaper  articles 
served  to  keep  alive  the  public  interest  and  to  indicate  the 
trend  of  public  opinion.  "A  Philadelpliian"  argued  against 
non-importation  as  a  mode  of  opposition  because  the  bur- 
den would  fall  wholly  on  the  drygoods  importers  whereas 
the  interests  of  all  were  involved.^  "  Brutus  "  believed 
that  the  plan,  proposed  by  the  Boston  circular  letter,  was 
dictated  more  by  "  heated  zeal  than  by  approved  reason  and 
moderation,"  and  maintained  that  the  proper  course  would 
be  for  Congress  to  petition  the  British  government  for  re- 
dress.* But,  according  to  "  Sidney,"  those  who  espoused 
the  method  of  petition  were  "  men  who  prefer  one  cargo 
of  British  goods  to  the  salvation  of  America,"  and  he  de- 
manded an  immediate  non-importation.^  "Anglus  Ameri- 
canus  "  would  also  include  a  non-exportation,  particularly 

^  For  the  "  rotten  borough  "  system  in  Pennsylvania,  vide  Adams,  J., 
Works,  vol.  X,  pp.  74-75 ;  Lincoln,  op.  cit.,  pp.  40-52. 

'Pa.  Gaa.,  July  6,  1774.  ^  Ibid.,  Aug.  17,  1774. 

4  Ibid.,  July  20,  1774.  ^  Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  31,  1774, 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


351 


to  the  West  Indies.^  Rural  opinion  was  well  expressed  by 
Edward  Shippen  when  he  advocated  a  total  non-importa- 
tion and  non-exportation,  insisting  that  the  Boston  Port 
Act  contained  the  names  of  all  the  provinces,  "  only  they 
are  written  in  lime  juice  and  want  the  heat  of  fire  to  make 
them  legible."  ^  On  July  1 1  the  mechanics  and  small 
tradesmen  of  Philadelphia  held  a  meeting  to  urge  another 
mass  meeting  of  the  city  and  county,  at  which  the  Penn- 
sylvania delegates  should  be  given  unrestricted  power  to 
agree  to  a  trade  suspension  by  the  congress.  But  the 
Forty-Three  saw  in  this  gathering  a  design  to  undermine 
their  authority,  and  nothing  came  of  the  matter.^ 
<  The  provincial  convention  assembled  at  Carpenters'  Hall 
on  Friday,  July  15,  with  one  or  more  deputies  from  every 
county  in  the  province.*  Thomas  Willing  was  chosen  chair- 
man, Charles  Thomson,  clerk.  The  dominant  voice  of  the 
rural  members  was  at  once  insured  by  an  agreement  that 
the  voting  should  be  by  counties.  The  work  of  the  first  day 
consisted  in  the  adoption  of  a  platform,  or  set  of  resolu- 
tions, which  voiced  the  opinion  of  the  convention  in  a  sig- 
nificant way.  /'  Unanimously "  the  convention  resolved 
that  it  was  their  "  earnest  desire  that  the  Congress  should 
first  try  the  gentler  mode  "of  petitioning  for  redress  be- 
fore resorting  to  "  a  suspension  of  the  commerce  of  this 
large  trading  province."  "  By  a  great  majority  "  it  was 
voted  that,  notwithstanding,   if  Congress  should   deem  a 

*  Pa.  Journ.,  June  29,  1774. 

^  Balch,  T.,  Letters  and  Papers  Relating  Chiefly  to  the  Provincial 
History  of  Pennsylvania  (Philadelphia,  1855),  pp.  238-239. 

'"Russel"  in  Pa.  Gas.,  July  20,  1774.  "An  Artisan"  in  ibid.,  Aug. 
31,  and  "A  ?kfechanic"  in  Pa.  Packet,  Sept.  5,  argued  boldly  for  a  new 
committee. 

*  For  the  proceedings  of  the  convention,  vide  Pa.  Gas.,  July  27,  1774; 
also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  555-593- 


352 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


non-importation  and  non-exportation  against  Great  Britain 
expedient,  the  people  of  the  province  would  join  the  other 
leading  provinces  in  that  measure.  ''  By  a  majority  "  it 
was  resolved  that,  if  any  further  proceedings  of  Parliament 
should  cause  Congress  to  take  more  drastic  steps  than  a 
suspension  of  trade  with  Great  Britain,  the  inhabitants 
would  do  all  in  their  power  to  support  the  action  of  Con- 
gress. The  convention  agreed  unanimously  upon  resolves 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  customary  prices  during  a  non- 
importation, and  for  a  boycott  of  any  province,  town  or 
individual  failing  to  adopt  the  plan  agreed  upon  by  Con- 
gress. '^ 

Most  of  the  next  four  days  was  consumed  in  consider- 
ing and  amending  a  draft  of  instructions  for  the  delegates, 
which  had  been  prepared  in  advance  by  a  sub-committee  of 
the  Forty-Three,  of  which  Dickinson  was  the  leading  spirit. 
Finally,  on  Wednesday,  the  twentieth,  a  set  of  resolutions 
was  agreed  upon,  which  displayed  many  internal  evidences 
of  a  conflict  of  interest  among  the  members.  The  lengthy 
document  was  addressed  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  commenced  with  a  Dickinsonian  essay  on  the  rights  of 
the  colonies  and  a  request  that  the  House  should  appoint 
delegates  to  the  impending  congress.^  The  draft  of  instruc- 
tions was  transmitted  "  in  pursuance  of  the  trust  imposed  " 
on  them  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  counties  qualified 
to  vote — a  delicate  intimation  of  the  common  source  of 
authority  of  the  two  bodies.  The  instructions  themselves 
bear  comparison  with  the  resolutions  adopted  on  the  first 
day  of  the  convention.  After  naming  a  comprehensive  list 
of  grievances  extending  back  into  the  years,   it  was  de- 

^  According  to  Thomson's  account,  the  convention  resolved  "  at  the 
same  time,  in  case  the  Assembly  refused,  to  take  upon  themselves  to 
appoint  deputies."  Stille,  op.  cit.,  p.  346.  This  does  not  appear  in  the 
extract  of  the  proceedings  accessible;  but  in  any  case  it  undoubtedly 
represented  the  temper  of  the  convention. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


353 


dared  that  the  minimum  demands  of  Congress  should  in- 
clude the  repeal  of  British  measures  "  relating  to  [the 
quartering  of]  the  troops;  internal  legislation;  imposition 
of  taxes  or  duties  hereafter;  the  thirty-fifth  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  chapter  the  second;  the  extension  of  Admiralty 
Courts;  the  port  of  Boston  and  Province  of  Massachusetts 
Bay."  In  return  for  these  concessions,  the  Americans 
should  agree  to  settle  a  certain  annual  revenue  on  the  king 
and  "  to  satisfy  all  damages  done  to  the  East  India  Com- 
pany." 
vff^  With  regard  to  the  best  method  of  obtaining  redress,  the 
aelegates  were  advised  to  advocate  a  petition  to  the  British 
government;  but  if  Congress  should  decide  upon  an  imme- 
diate severance  of  all  trade,  "  we  have  determined,  in  the 
present  situation  of  publick  affairs,  to  consent  to  a  stop- 
page of  our  commerce  with  Great  Britain  only."  Should  a 
partial  redress  be  granted,  the  boycott  should  be  modified 
in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  relief  afforded ;  on  the  other 
hand,  should  Parliament  pass  further  oppressive  acts,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  province  would  support  such  action  as 
Congress  might  adopt  more  drastic  than  a  suspension  of 
trade.  Finally,  the  convention  informed  the  House  of 
Representatives  that,  "  though  we  have,  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  good  people  of  this  Province,  who  have  chosen  us 
for  this  express  purpose,  offered  to  you  such  instructions  as 
have  appeared  expedient  to  us,  yet  it  is  not  our  meaning 
that,  by  these  or  by  any  you  may  think  proper  to  give  them, 
the  Deputies  appointed  by  you  should  be  restrained  from 
agreeing  to  any  measures  that  shall  be  approved  by  the 
Congress."  It  was  this  last  clause  which,  no  doubt,  recon- 
ciled the  radicals  in  the  convention  to  a  pseud'>endnrsement 
of  half-way  expedients,  which  the  experience  of  former 
years  had.  in  their  judgment,  decisively  discredited.  As 
for  the  personnel  of  the  delegates,  the  convention  contented 


354 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


itself  with  proposing  the  names  of  three  of  its  members, 
Dickinson,  Willing  and  James  Wilson,  with  the  suggestion 
that  the  House  should  select  these  three  together  with  four 
of  its  own  members/ 

On  the  next  day,  Thursday  the  twenty  first,  the  conven- 
tion went  in  a  body  to  the  chamber  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  presented  their  resolutions  and  instructions.^ 
Without  according  any  further  formal  recognition  to  the 
doings  of  the  convention,  the  House  resolved  to  take  under 
consideration  on  the  following  day  the  letters  received  in 
behalf  of  a  general  congress  from  the  committees  of  cor- 
respondence of  the  assemblies  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island  and  Virginia.  On  the  eve  of  the  morrow's  session,  a 
broadside  emanating  from  the  Galloway  party  was  handed 
to  the  members  of  the  House.  The  paper  drew  its  inspira- 
tion from  the  quotation  of  Hume's  with  which  it  opened : 
(/"  All  numerous  Assemblies,  however  composed,  are  mere 
mobs,  and  swayed  in  their  debates  by  the  least  motive  .  .  . 
An  absurdity  strikes  a  member,  he  conveys  it  to  his  neigh- 
bours and  the  whole  is  infected.  .  .  .  The  only  way  of 
making  people  wise,  is  to  keep  them  from  uniting  into  large 
Assemblies."  By  what  legal  authority,  it  was  asked,  has 
the  convention  assembled  ?  "  We  know  not  where  such 
precedents  may  terminate;  setting  up  a  power  to  controul 
you,  is  setting  up  anarchy  above  order — it  is  the  begin- 
ning  OF   REPUBLICANISM."^} 

'  This  transaction  does  not  appear  in  the  familiar  extract  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, 'but  it  is  sufficiently  well  authenticated ;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p. 
607  n. ;  "Censor"  in  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  Mch.  5,  1776;  Thomson's  narrative, 
Stille,  op.  cit.,  p.  346. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  SS7,  606. 

*  The  virriter,  who  signed  himself  "  A  Freeman,"  also  denounced  the 
rule  of  voting  in  the  convention,  by  which  the  vote  of  a  frontier 
county  was  equal  to  that  of  "  this  opulent  and  populous  city  and 
county."    Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  607-608  n. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  355 

On  the  next  day,  the  House  resolved,  in  words  very 
similar  to  the  vote  of  the  convention,  that  a  congress  was 
**  an  absolute  necessity."  They  did  not  follow  the  cue 
given  them  by  the  convention  as  to  the  personnel  of  the 
delegates,  and  selected  seven  members  out  of  their  own 
body,  including  Galloway  himself.  A  day  later,  instruc- 
tions were  voted  to  "  the  Committee  of  Assembly  appointed 
to  attend  the  General  Congress."  These  instructions,  com- 
posed by  Galloway,  were  drawn  with  a  frank  disregard  of 
the  elaborate  directions  submitted  by  the  convention.  In 
brief  form,  they  stated  that  the  trust  reposed  in  the  dele- 
gates was  of  such  a  nature  and  the  modes  of  performance 
might  be  so  diversified  in  the  course  of  the  deliberations  of 
Congress  that  detailed  instructions  were  impossible;  that 
the  delegates  should  strive  their  utmost  to  adopt  measures 
for  redress  and  the  establishment  of  union  and  harmony 
with  Great  Britain  while  avoiding  "  every  thing  indecent 
or  disrespectful  to  the  mother  state."  ^ 

Had  the  personnel  of  the  delegates  been  different,  the 
radicals  would  have  been  well  pleased  with  this  blanket 
delegation  of  authority.  But  under  the  circumstances,  Gal- 
loway expected  to  control  the  action  of  the  delegates;  and 
his  own  judgment  called  for  the  sending  of  commissioners  to 
England  to  adjust  differences  and  for  the  scrupulous  absten- 
tion from  measures  of  non-intercourse.^  Governor  Penn 
could  well  assure  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  that  "  the  steps 
taken  by  the  Assembly  are  rather  a  check  than  an  encour- 
agement to  the  proceedings  of  the  Committee  [conven- 
tion]."* The  radicals  improved  their  situation  somewhat 
by  securing  the  addition  of  Dickinson  to  the  delegates  by 

1  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  606-609;  also  Pa.  Gaz.,  July  27,  1774. 

*  Letter  to  William  Franklin;  /  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  475-477- 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  661. 


356  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  roundabout  process  of  electing  him  to  the  House  on 
October  15,  and  he  took  his  seat  in  Congress  after  it  had 
been  in  session  six  weeks.  From  a  broader  point  of  view, 
the  victory  lay  with  the  radicals ;  for,  although  the  House 
had  professed  to  act  of  their  own  independent  will  through- 
out, there  had  been,  in  a  real  sense  of  the  term,  a  "  setting 
up  [of]  a  power  to  controul  "  them,  a  "  setting  up  [of] 
anarchy  above  order."  Galloway  himself  had  decided,  as  a 
lesser  of  evils,  to  take  part  in  a  great  continental  assem- 
blage elected  in  most  irregular  and  informal  ways.^ 

The  trend  of  sentiment  in  New  Jersey  was  dominated,  it 
would  appear,  by  the  course  of  the  two  great  trading  towns 
that  controlled  her  commercial  destinies."  On  May  21  and 
23  the  Philadelphia  and  New  York  committees  had  in- 
formed the  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  of  their 
unwillingness  for  positive  action  until  the  meeting  of  a 
general  congress ;  and  news  of  their  position  became  known 
at  once  in  New  Jersey.  On  the  last  day  of  the  month,  the 
committee  of  correspondence  of  the  New  Jersey  Assembly 
transmitted  to  the  Boston  committee  their  endorsement  of 
a  congress,  as  proposed  by  the  neighboring  provinces,  to 
draw  up  "  a  Non-Importation  and  perhaps  a  Non-Exporta- 

^  The  resolution  of  the  House  appointing  Galloway  and  his  coMepgues 
described  the  congress  as  composed  of  committees  or  delegates  ap- 
pointed by  provincial  "  Houses  of  Representatives,  or  by  Convention, 
or  by  the  Provincial  or  Colony  Committees."  Galloway  jus  iPed  his 
conduct  upon  the  ground  that  the  assemblies  had  not  been  permitted  to 
meet  in  some  provinces.    Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxvi,  p.  309. 

*  This  was  hinted  at  in  the  first  set  of  resolutions  issued  by  a  public 
body  in  New  Jersey — a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Lower  Freehold 
township  in  Monmouth  County.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  390;  alo  ^V.  Y. 
Journ.,  June  7,  1774.  The  radicalism  which  characterized  the  rural 
population  in  most  provinces  was  in  New  Jersey  subdued  by  the  pres- 
ence of  large  numbers  of  Quakers,  particularly  in  the  western  portion. 


CONTEST  IN  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


357 


tion  Agreement."  ^  This  was  the  signal  for  a  series  of 
county  meetings  throughout  the  province,  which  adopted 
resolutions  expressing  the  same  view.'  They  also  ap- 
pointed committees  of  correspondence,  who  were  instructed 
to  meet  with  the  other  committees  in  a  provincial  convention 
for  the  purpose  of  choosing  delegates  to  the  general  con- 
gress. This  convention  of  committees  gathered  at  New 
Brunswick  on  July  21,  and  seventy-two  delegates  took  part 
in  the  three  days'  deliberations.  Their  resolutions  denied 
the  right  of  Parliament  to  impose  revenue  taxes  and  de- 
nounced the  coercive  acts  recently  passed.  A  continental 
congress  was  endorsed  as  the  best  means  of  uniting  oppo- 
sition ;  and  a  general  non-importation  and  non-consumption 
agreement  was  recommended  as  the  best  course  for  the 
congress  to  adopt.  Delegates  were  appointed  to  the  con- 
gress ;  but  an  effort  to  procure  an  instruction  that  the  East 
India  Company  should  not  be  reimbursed  met  with  failure.^ 

The  action  of  the  Delaware  counties  was,  on  the  whole, 
less  restrained  than  that  taken  at  Philadelphia.  Published 
appeals  for  arousing  public  resentment  raked  over  the 
embers  of  past  disputes  with  Parliament  in  a  bitterly  par- 
tisan way.*     The   first  mass  meeting,   held   in   Newcastle 

'  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  vi'n,  pp.  709-710. 

*  From  June  8  to  July  20,  it  is  recorded  that  eleven  of  the  thirteen 
counties  acted;  in  chronological  order:  Essex,  Bergen,  Morris,  Somer- 
set, Hunterdon,  Salem,  Middlesex,  Sussex,  Gloucester,  Monmouth  and 
Burlington.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  403-404,  450,  S24-525,  553-554,  594,  610- 
613;  Pa.  Jonrn.,  July  20,  1774.  These  meetings  endorsed  a  suspens'on 
of  trade  contingent  upon  the  approval  of  the  congress,  most  of  them 
preferring  non-importation  and  non-consumption  alone.  Salem  County 
showed  some  individuality  in  introducing  the  act  of  Parliament  aga'nst 
slitting  and  plating  mills  as  a  grievance  and  denouncing  it  as  "  an 
absolute  infringement  of  the  natural  rights  of  the  subject." 

^  Pa.  Gas.,  July  27,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  624-625.  Vide 
also  Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  356. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  419-420,  658-661. 


358 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


County  on  June  29,  recommended  a  continental  congress 
as  the  proper  agency  for  securing  redress,  and  appointed  a 
committee  to  correspond  with  the  other  counties  and  prov- 
inces with  reference  to  the  matter.  One  resolve  requested 
the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Assembly  to  convene  the  mem- 
bers of  that  body  not  later  than  August  i,  in  order  to  ap- 
point delegates  to  the  congress,  no  request  being  made  of 
the  governor  because  of  his  refusal  in  the  case  of  the  Phila- 
delphia petition/  A  few  weeks  later  county  meetings  in 
Kent  and  Sussex  took  similar  action."  The  convention  as- 
sembled at  Newcastle  on  August  i.  Its  resolutions  ar- 
raigned the  British  Parliament  for  restricting  manufactures 
in  the  colonies,  for  taking  away  the  property  of  the  colonists 
without  their  consent,  for  introducing  the  arbitrary  powers 
of  the  excise  into  the  customs  in  America,  for  making  all 
revenue  causes  tryable  without  a  jury  and  under  a  single 
dependent  judge,  and  for  passing  the  coercive  acts.  Dele- 
gates were  chosen  to  the  approaching  congress.^ 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  664;  also  Pa.  Gar;.  July  6,  1774. 
^  Ibid.,  Aug.  3,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  664-666. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  666-667. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Contest  of  Merchants  and  Radicals  for  Dominance 
IN  THE  Plantation  Provinces  (May- 
October,  1774) 

J^  is  apparent  that  a  revolution  of  sentiment  had  ocj 
curred  amongfthe  merchants  of  the  northern  seaports. ' 
Thoselvvho  had  promoted  movements  of  protest  against 
earlier  acts  of  Parliament  now  sought  to  stop  or  restrain 
the  present  popular  uprising.  \,By  this  reversal  of  front, 
th£y_Qccapied_„the.  same  position^of  -obstmcliaiL  in  „I7,7^ 
that_the  merchants  and  factors  of  the  plantatijjji ^pro- 
vinces had  maintained  on  all  occasions  since  the  begin- 
ning_of_the  commotions  ten  years  beforeTj/For  this 
reason,  the  course  of  the  plantation  provinces  in  response 
to  the  circular  letter  of  the  Boston  town  meeting  of 
May  13,  1774,  does  not  show  the  marked  contrast  to  the 
events  in  the  commercial  provinces  that  had  characterized 
the^earlier  occasions.N 

^he  nature  of  th^ontest  in  1774  struck  closer  home 
to  the  Southern  planters  than  the  earlier  quarrels  over 
trade  reforms,  for  the  issue  was  more  clearly  one  of  per- 
sonal liberty  and  constitutional  right,  and  in  the  school 
of  dialectic  the  plantation  provinces  acknowledged  no 
superiors.  The  long-standing  Jindebtedness  of  ^the 
planters  to  the  British  merchants  was  a  source~of  irrjta- 
tion  that  undoubtedly  induced  radical  action,  in  the 
tobacco  provinces  and  in  North  Carolina  in  particular. 
The  demand  for  a  sus^gnsjon^of., debt  XQllectioiLS_piayed 

359 


360  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

a  part  in  the  popular  movement  in  these  provinces,  and, 
at  a  later  time,  in  South  Carolina  as  well.  On  the  pre- 
sent occasion,  the  merchants  of  Charleston  and  Savannah 
were  able  to  command  support  from  the  rural  districts 
of  their  provinces,  due  to  peculiar  local  conditions ;  but 
in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  where  the  merchants 
were  forced  to  stand  alone,  the  planters  adopted  the 
most  radical  measures  of  commercial  opposition  that 
were  to  be  found  anywhere  in  British  America.  Mary- 
land was  only  less  extreme  in  the  measures  adopted/y 

The  movement  to  take  action  in  response  to  the  Bos- 
ton circular  letter  received  its  initial  impulse  in  Mary- 
land at  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Annapolis  on 
May  25,  1774.  The  resolutions  were  an  advance  be- 
yond anything  that  had  been  adopted  elsewhere  up  to 
this  time.  The  meeting  declared  that  all  provinces 
should  unite  in  effectual  measures  to  obtain  the  repeal  of 
the  Boston  Port  Act  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  Annapolis 
would  join  in  an  oath-bound  association  in  conjunction 
with  the  other  Maryland  counties  and  the  other  principal 
provinces  for  an  immediate  non-importation  with  Great 
Britain  and  a  suspended  non-exportation.  The  inhabit- 
ants would  immediately  boycott  any  province  that  re- 
fused to  enter  similar  resolutions  with  a  majority  of  the 
provinces.  The  meeting  further  resolved  that  no  lawyer 
should  bring  suit  for  the  recovery  of  any  debt  due  from 
a  Marylander  to  any  inhabitant  of  Great  Britain  until 
the  Port  Act  should  be  repealed.  A  committee  of  cor- 
respondence was  appointed,  with  instructions  to  join 
with  similar  committees  to  be  appointed  elsewhere  in 
the  province  to  form  one  grand  committee.'     The  dec- 

^  Md.  Gaz.,  May  26,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  352-353. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  361 

laration  about  the  payment  of  debts  at  once  aroused  pro- 
test in  the  city  ;  and  two  days  later  a  second  meeting 
was  held  to  re-consider  the  question,  and  the  resolution 
was  carried  again,  forty-seven  to  thirty-one.'  Daniel 
Dulany,  Jr.,  was  one  of  those  opposed  to  the  resolution 
but  later  he  admitted:  "  I  would  have  agreed  to  it  if  it 
had  extended  to  merchants  in  this  country  as  well  as 
foreign  merchants."^ 

All  the  subsequent  meetings  in  Maryland  were  county 
assemblages,  thus  reducing  the  opportunities  for  mer- 
cantile influence.  Within  three  weeks  eight  of  the  six- 
teen counties  were  recorded  as  following  the  example 
of  the  town  of  Annapolis. ^  Six  of  these  meetings  fav- 
ored a  non-exportation  and  non-importation,  simultane- 
ous or  successive ;  Caroline  preferred  a  modified  non-im- 
portation only;  and  Kent  was  silent  on  the  subject.  A 
suspension  of  debt  collections,  foreign  and  domestic,  was 
advocated  by  four  counties,  in  case  of  complete  non- 
intercourse."'  Six  counties  declared  that  all  provinces 
failing  to  adopt  the  general  plan  should  be  boycotted. 
All  the  meetings  organized  committees  of  correspon- 
dence and  appointed  delegates  to  the  forthcoming  pro- 
vince convention. 

The  convention  of  committees  assembled  at  Annapolis 
on  Wednesday,  June  22,  for  a  four  days'  sitting,  with 
ninety-two    members    representing  every  county   in  the 

^  Md.  Gaz.,  June  2,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  353. 

^Ibid.,  vol.  i.  pp.  354-355.  A  formal  protest  against  the  resolution, 
signed  by  one  hundred  sixty-three  names,  mostly  of  stay-at-home 
citizens,  appeared  a  few  days  later.     Ibid.,  pp.  353-354. 

'In  chronological  order:  Queen  Anne's,  Baltimore.  Kent,  Anne 
Arundel,  Harford,  lower  part  of  Frederick,  Charles,  Caroline,  Fred- 
erick. Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  366-367,  379.  384-386,  402-403,  409,  425-426, 
433-434:  also  Md.  Gaz.,  June  9,  16,  30,  1774. 

*Anne  Arundel,  Caroline,  Frederick,  Harford. 


2,(>2. 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S-1776 


province.  It  was  agreed  that  every  county  should  cast 
one  vote.  The  resolutions  denounced  the  punitive  acts 
of  Parliament  and  declared  the  willingness  of  the  pro- 
vince to  join  in  a  retaliatory  association,  in  company 
with  the  principal  provinces  of  the  continent,  to  stop 
all,  or  almost  all,  commercial  intercourse  with  the 
mother  country,  at  a  date  to  be  fixed  by  the  general 
congress.  This  latter  resolve  occasioned  long  debates 
on  Friday,  lasting  from  ten  in  the  morning  until  nine  at 
night.  The  division,  it  would  appear,  was  on  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  non-intercourse  should  be  absolute,  as 
proposed  by  the  preliminary  county  meetings,  or  quali- 
fied. The  moderates  forced  a  compromise  by  which  it 
was  agreed  that  the  non-exportation  of  tobacco  should 
not  take  place  without  a  similar  restraint  in  force  in 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  that  articles  should  be 
excepted  from  the  non-importation  in  case  a  majority  of 
the  provinces  should  so  decide.  Further  resolutions 
declared  that  merchants  must  not  raise  prices,  on  pain 
of  boycott ;  and  that  the  province  would  sever  all  rela- 
tions with  any  province  or  town  which  declined  the  plan 
recommended  by  the  congress.'  Apparently  there  was 
little  thought  of  adopting  an  association  which  should  go 
into  effect  independently  of  Congress;  the  resolutions 
were  in  the  nature  of  instructions  to  the  delegates  to 
Congress,  who  were  forthwith  chosen. 

The  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  was  in  session  when 
news  was  received  at  Williamsburg  of  the  passage  of  the 
Boston  Port  Act.  Richard  Henry  Lee,  one  of  the  mem- 
bers, urged  that  an  immediate  declaration  be  made  in 
behalf  of  Boston,  but  was   dissuaded  by  some  "  worthy 

^Md.  Gaz.,  June  30,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  43Q-440. 
Vide  a  letter  from  Annapolis  in  Pa.  Journ.,  June  29. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  363 

members "  who  desired  first  to  dispose  of  necessary 
provincial  business.'  "Whatever  resolves  or  measures 
are  intended  for  the  preservation  of  our  rights  and  lib- 
erties," wrote  George  Mason,  who  was  a  spectator  of 
these  events,  "  will  be  reserved  for  the  conclusion  of  the 
session.  Matters  of  that  sort  here  are  conducted  and 
prepared  with  a  great  deal  of  privacy,  and  by  very  few 
members;  of  whom  Patrick  Henry  is  the  principal." 
Finally,  on  Tuesday,  May  24,  the  House  resolved  that 
the  first  of  June,  the  day  on  which  the  harbor  of  Boston 
was  to  be  closed,  should  be  set  aside  as  a  "day  of  fast- 
ing, humiliation  and  prayer."  Governor  Dunmore,  sus- 
pecting rightly  that  the  fast  was  intended  to  prepare  the 
minds  of  the  people  to  receive  other  and  more  inflam- 
matory resolutions,  dissolved  the  House  two  days  later. 
Not  to  be  foiled,  eighty-nine  burgesses  met  in  their 
private  capacities  in  the  Long  Room  of  the  Raleigh 
Tavern  on  Friday  morning,  with  Peyton  Randolph  as 
chairman,  and  adopted  an  association  in  which  they 
declared  war  on  the  East  India  Company  by  recommend- 
ing the  disuse  of  dutied  tea  and  of  all  East  India  com- 
modities, save  saltpetre  and  spices.  It  was  further  recom- 
mended to  the  legislative  committee  of  correspondence 
to  invite  the  various  provinces  to  meet  in  annual  congress 
for  the  sake  of  deliberating  on  measures  of  common  con- 
cern. In  point  of  time,  this  was  the  first  pronounce- 
ment by  a  meeting  representing  a  whole  province  in 
favor  of  an  interprovincial  congress ;  but,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  proposal  had  already  been  made  by  many  town 
gatherings  in  various  other  provinces. 

'This  account  is  based  chiefly  on:  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  350-352, 
387-388,  445-446;  Washington,  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  pp.  412-415, 
n.  2;  letter  of  a  burgess  in  Rind's  la.  Gaz.,  Sept.  22,  1774;  Rowland, 
George  Mason,  vol.  i,  pp.  168-171. 


364  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

These  measures,  which  Richard  Henry  Lee  denomin- 
ated as  "much  too  feeble,"  were  entered  into  indepen- 
dently of  any  knowledge  of  what  had  been  done  else- 
where. When  the  Boston  circular  letter  arrived,  with 
other  letters  from  the  north,  on  Sunday,  May  29,  most 
of  the  ex-burgesses  had  departed  for  their  homes;  but 
Peyton  Randolph  succeeded  in  collecting  twenty  five  of 
them  for  a  meeting  on  Monday  morning.  Most  of  those 
present  believed  it  absolutely  necessary  to  enlarge  the 
association  to  include  a  general  non-importation,  but 
they  were  badly  divided  as  to  the  expediency  of  stopping 
exportation.  Furthermore,  they  felt  that,  in  any  case, 
their  number  was  too  small  to  permit  them  to  alter  the 
association.  Therefore  they  addressed  a  circular  letter 
to  the  absent  gentlemen,  explaining  the  situation,  ask- 
ing them  to  collect  the  sense  of  their  constituents,  and 
to  assemble  in  Williamsburg  on  August  1  to  take  final 
action. 

This  referendum  to  the  people,  occupying  a  space  of 
two  months,  showed  conclusively  that  the  temper  of  the 
rural  constituencies  was  far  more  radical  than  the  action 
of  their  representatives  at  the  Williamsburg  meeting  in- 
dicated. The  chief  source  of  opposition  to  the  popular 
measures  was  disclosed  by  James  Madison,  when  he 
wrote  that  ''  the  Europeans,  especially  the  Scotch,  and 
some  interested  merchants  among  the  natives,  discounte- 
nance such  proceedings  as  far  as  they  dare;  alledging 
the  injustice  aud  perfidy  of  refusing  to  pay  our  debts  to 
our  generous  creditors  at  home.  This  consideration 
induces  some  honest,  moderate  folks  to  prefer  a  partial 
prohibition,  extending  only  to  the  importation,  of 
goods."'     It  was  reported  in  London  newspapers  that 

^Madison,  Writings  (Hunt),  vol.  i,  p.  26. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  365 

when  a  meeting  of  merchants  at  Norfolk,  the  chief  trad- 
ing centre,  had  the  Boston  circular  letter  under  consid- 
eration, a  wag  present  observed  that  "the  request  put 
him  in  mind  of  the  old  fable  of  the  fox  that  had  lost  his 
tail  and  who  would  have  persuaded  his  brethren  to  cut 
off  theirs."  He  believed  that  "as  amputation  is  a  dan- 
gerous operation  ...  it  will  be  better  to  take  time  to 
consider  of  it."  The  meeting  accordingly  adjourned 
without  action.' 

The  first  county  meeting  was  held  at  Dumfries  in 
Prince  William  County  on  June  6.  One  resolution  de- 
clared boldly :  "  that  as  our  late  Representatives  have 
not  fallen  upon  means  sufficiently  efficacious  to  secure 
to  us  the  enjoyment  of  our  civil  rights  and  liberties,  it 
is  the  undoubted  privilege  of  each  respective  county  (as 
the  fountain  of  power  from  whence  their  delegation 
arises)  to  take  such  proper  and  salutary  measures  as  wall 
essentially  conduce  to  a  repeal "  of  the  coercive  acts.^ 
This  resolve  marked  the  tempo  with  which  all  the  count- 
ies acted.  In  the  period  up  to  the  time  of  the  provincial 
convention  on  August  i,  thirty-one,  perhaps  more, 
counties  gave  expression  to  their  sentiments  as  to  a 
proper  mode  of  opposition  to  the  mother  country.^ 

^  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Posi-Boy.  Sept.  12,  1774.  Vide  also  Pa.  Gaz.,  Aug. 
24.  This  no  doubt  e.Npressed  the  views  of  the  merchants;  but  the  in- 
habitants of  the  borough  in  general  were  ready  to  adopt  measures  of 
protest.     4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  370-372. 

^Rind's  Va.  Gcz.,  June  9,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  388. 
Vide  also  the  StafTord  resolutions,  ibid.,  p.  617. 

"In  chronological  order:  Prince  Wi'liam,  Frederick,  Dunmore, 
Westmoreland,  Spotsylvania,  Richmond,  Prince  George's,  James 
City,  Norfolk,  Culpepper,  Essex,  Fauquier,  Nansemond,  New  Kent, 
Chesterfield,  Caroline,  Gloucester,  Henrico,  Middlesex,  Dinwiddle, 
Surry,  York,  Fairfax.  Hanover,  Stafford,  Isle  of  Wight,  Elizabeth 
City,  Albemarle,  Accomack,  Princess  Anne,  Buckingham.  Ibid., 
vol.  i,  pp.  388-644  passim.  The  resolutions  of  Isle  of  Wight  County 
appeared  in  Rind's  Va.  Gaz.,  July  28,  1774. 


366  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

All  meetings  agreed  that  Parliament  lacked  power  to 
impose  taxes  collectable  in  America,  and  denounced  the 
Boston  Port  Act.  Twenty  counties  announced  them- 
selves in  favor  of  the  extreme  measure  of  commercial 
non-intercourse  with  Great  Britain,  in  conjunction  with 
the  other  provinces,  although  eight  of  these  preferred  to 
have  non -exportation  go  into  effect  at  a  stated  interval 
after  non-importation.  The  three  counties  recommended 
merely  the  adoption  of  an  unqualified  non-importation ; ' 
and  five  others  proposed  a  non-importation  with  certain 
articles  excepted,  as  in  former  associations.'  The  re- 
maining three  counties  indicated  their  willingness  to 
accept  any  conclusions  reached  at  the  provincial  conven- 
tion.3  A  declaration  in  favor  of  the  suspension  of  judicial 
processes  for  the  collection  of  debts  during  non-exporta- 
tion was  made  by  eight  counties,  on  the  ground  that  the 
people,  under  such  circumstances,  had  not  the  means  of 
paying."*  Gloucester  County  resolved  that,  if  Maryland 
and  North  Carolina  withheld  the  exportation  of  tobacco 
to  Great  Britain,  Virginia  should  adopt  the  same  measure. 

Ten  counties  scrupulously  said  that  they  would  follow 
the  advice  of  the  former  burgesses  and  boycott  goods 
handled  by  the  East  India  Company,  with  certain  ex- 
ceptions. Six  counties  denounced  the  importation  of 
slaves  as  an  economic  fallacy,  saying,  in  the  words  of 
Nansemond,  "the  African  trade  is  injurious  to  this 
Colony,  obstructs  the  population  of  it  by  freemen,  pre- 
vents  manufacturers   and   other  useful   emigrants   from 

'  Buckingham,  Caroline,  Nansemond. 

'■^Chesterfield,  Culpepper,  Middlesex,  Prince  George's,  York. 
^Accomack,  Dinwiddie,  Isle  of  Wight. 

*  Essex,   Fairfax,    Fauquier,   Gloucester,    Prince    William,    Stafford, 
Richmond,  Westmoreland. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


367 


Europe  from  settling  among  us,  and  occasions  an  annual 
increase  of  the  balance  of  trade  against  this  Colony."' 
The  resolutions  of  three  counties  contained  a  declaration 
against  the. advancing  of  prices  by  merchants.  Several 
counties  recommended  the  abandonment  of  extravagance 
and  display.  Albemarle  favored  the  repeal,  not  only  of 
the  Boston  Port  Act,  but  also  of  all  laws  levying  duties 
in  America,  restricting  American  trade  and  restraining 
colonial  manufacturing.  It  was  proposed  by  Fairfax 
that,  after  an  interprovincial  association  had  been  drawn 
up,  its  enforcement  should  be  left  to  committees  in  every 
county  on  the  continent,  with  instructions  to  publish  all 
violators  as  traitors.  Norfolk  County  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  suggest,  with  a  view  perhaps  of  discrediting  the 
moral  of  the  fable  about  the  fox,  that  the  Virginia  com- 
mittees be  composed  "'  of  respectable  men,  fixed  and 
settled  inhabitants  of  their  respective  counties."  Nine 
counties  announced  the  boycott  as  the  proper  penalty 
for  individuals  who  failed  to  adopt  the  agreed  plan  of 
opposition;  and  seven  counties  urged  a  boycott  of  de- 
linquent provinces. 

The  meeting  of  the  provincial  convention  was  pre- 
ceded by  several  spirited  appeals,  the  most  important 
being  the  series,  published  by  the  planter,  Thomson 
Mason,  under  the  pseudonym,  "  British  American,"  in 
six  issues  of  Rind's  Virginia  Gazette,  beginning  June  16.^ 
These  articles  were  particularly  aimed  to  stimulate  to  rad- 
ical action  those  "  countrymen  whose  own  industry,  or 
the  frugality  of  their  ancestors,  have  blessed  .  .  .  [them] 

'Caroline,  Culpepper,  Nansemond,  Prince  George's,  Princess  Anne, 
Surry.  Slavery  was  condemned  by  Fairfax  and  Hanover  as  a  moral 
evil. 

-Reprinted  in  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  418-419,  495-498.  519-522, 
541-544,  620-624,  648-654.     Vide  also  ibid.,  p.  647. 


368 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


with  immense  wealth ; ''  and  to  this  end,  great  stress 
was  laid  on  the  dano^er  of  submitting  "to  a  double  taxa- 
tion and  to  two  supreme  Legislatures,"  in  one  of  which 
the  legislative  power  was  wielded  by  men  who,  "from 
their  situation,  will  reap  the  advantages  but  cannot  share 
in  the  inconveniences"  of  their  oppressive  laws.  With 
much  ingenuity,  the  writer  argued  that  Parliament  lacked 
power  to  legislate  for  the  colonies,  and  then  turned  to 
consider  the  possible  methods  of  opposition.  Rejecting 
non-intercourse  as  a  temporizing  measure  and  imprac- 
ticable, he  urged  that  the  delegates  to  the  Continental 
Congress  be  instructed  to  refuse  flatly  to  obey  all  laws, 
including  the  acts  of  navigation  and  trade,  made  by  Par- 
liament since  the  first  settlements,  and  in  defense  of  this 
position,  to  resort  to  armed  resistance  and  secession,  if 
necessary.  After  the  convention  had  gotten  under  way, 
another  article  appeared  in  favor  of  the  policy  of  non- 
intercouse,  contending  that  "we  need  not  on  the  present 
occasion  shed  our  blood  to  secure  our  rights  .  .  .  " ' 
This  latter  article  and  the  series  of  county  resolutions 
preliminary  to  the  convention  struck  the  true  keynote  of 
the  convention's  deliberations. 

The  Virginia  convention  began  its  work  promptly  on 
August  I  and  completed  its  deliberations  on  the  sixth.'' 
Of  the  debates  that  occurred  we  know  nothing;  but 
delegates  were  chosen  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and 
the  association  adopted  marked  the  crest  of  the  radical 
wave  set  in  motion  by  the  late  acts  of  Parliament.  In 
view  of  the  striking  similarity  between  the  Virginia  As- 
sociation and  the  later  Continental  Association,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  former  paper  was  the  model 

'-/  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  685  686. 

-Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  686-6go;  also  Md.  Gaz.,  Aug.  18,  1774. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  369 

for  the  latter.  The  action  of  the  delegates  faithfully  re- 
flected the  sentiments  of  their  constituents.  The  dele- 
gates boldly  set  the  dates  at  which  the  various  parts  of 
the  association  were  to  go  into  effect,  subject  to  such 
changes  as  might  be  assented  to  by  the  Virginia  dele- 
gates in  the  Continental  Congress;  and  the  association 
was  to  be  religiously  adhered  to  "  before  God  and  the 
world"  until  the  redress  of  all  grievances  which  might 
be  named  by  Congress.'  The  immediate  non-importa- 
tion and  disuse  of  tea  "  of  any  kind  whatever  "  was  agreed 
upon,^  with  the  understanding  that  if  Boston  were  com- 
pelled to  reimburse  the  East  India  Company,  the  boycott 
should  be  extended  to  all  articles  handled  by  the  com- 
pany till  the  money  was  returned.  On  November  i, 
1774,  an  absolute  boycott  of  all  goods  (except  medi- 
cines) imported  thereafter,  directly  or  indirectly,  from 
Great  Britain  was  to  become  effective  i^  and  the  agree- 
ment was  to  extend  likewise  to  negroes  imported  from 
Africa,  the  West  Indies  or  elsewhere."*  If  colonial  griev- 
ances were  not  redressed  by  August  10,  1775,  an  abso- 
lute non-exportation  was  to  be  declared,  of  all  articles 
intended  to  be  sent,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  Great 
Britain. 5  This  postponement  was  granted  in  order  to 
enable  as  quick  and  full  payment  of  debts  to  Britain  as 
possible  and  in  order  to  get  the  profits  on  the  present 
tobacco  crop.  As  non-exportation  would  be  a  blow  to 
tobacco  culture,  planters  were  advised  thereafter  to  de- 

'  Or  until  the  association  should  be  amended  or  abrogated  by  a  later 
provincial  convention. 

'  C/.  Continental  Association,  Arts,  i  and  iii.  Appendix,  present 
volume. 

'■'Cf.  ibid..  Art.  i. 
*C/.  ibid.,  Art.  ii. 
■'CV.  ibid.,  hxt.  iv. 


Z7^ 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1783-1776 


vote  their  fields  to  the  growing  of  raw  materials  for 
manufacturing;  and  a  pledge  was  given  to  improve  the 
breed  of  sheep  and  to  increase  their  number/  Mer- 
chants were  warned  to  maintain  the  prices  usual  during 
the  past  year  on  pain  of  boycott.^  In  order  to  super- 
vise the  execution  of  the  association  and  to  correspond 
with  the  general  committee  of  correspondence  at  Wil- 
liamsburg, it  was  recommended  that  a  committee  be 
chosen  in  each  county. 3  Merchants  and  Iraders  were 
required,  on  threat  of  boycott,  to  obtain  certificates  from 
the  committee  that  they  had  signed  the  association.  If 
any  merchant  or  other  person  received  forbidden  im- 
portations, the  goods  should  be  forthwith  re-shipped  or 
stored  under  supervision  of  the  committee;'*  otherwise 
"  the  truth  of  the  case  "  should  be  published  in  the  ga- 
zettes and  all  dealings  severed  with  the  offender.  A 
similar  treatment  should  await  the  violator  of  non- 
exportation. s 

North  Carolina  followed  in  the  train  of  the  Virginia 
movement,  and  thus  won  the  distinction  of  being  the 
second  most  radical  province  in  the  measures  adopted. 
Under  stimulus  of  the  succession  of  county  meetings  in 
Virginia,  a  meeting  of  six  counties  in  the  district  of 
Wilmington  was  held  on  July  21  under  the  chairmanship 
of  W^illiam  Hooper,  a  transplanted  Bostonian  who  had 
studied  law  under  James  Otis  at  the  zenith  of  his  rad- 
icalism.    A  committee  was  appointed  to  send  a  circular 

^  Cf.  Continental  Association,  Art.  vii. 
*Cf.  ibid..  Art.  ix. 
^Cf.  ibid..  Art.  xi. 
^Cf.  ibid..  Art.  X. 
^Cf.  ibid.,  Art.  xi. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


371 


to  all  the  counties,  proposing  a  general  meeting  in  the 
latter  part  of  August  to  adopt  measures  in  concert  with 
the  other  provinces ;  and  it  was  voted  that  a  general 
congress  was  the  best  way  to  effect  a  uniform  plan  for 
all  America.'  Before  the  date  of  the  provincial  meeting, 
most  of  the  counties  and  two  of  the  towns  had  responded 
by  adopting  resolutions  and  choosing  delegates.^  The 
resolutions  still  extant  varied  in  tone.  Only  Anson 
County  went  so  far  as  to  counsel  the  stoppage  of  all 
trade  with  Great  Britain  (save  in  a  few  necessary  articles), 
Granville  declaring  that  it  was  a  "  measure  not  to  be  en- 
tered into  with  precipitation."  Rowan  County  and  Hali- 
fax expressed  a  preference  for  a  modified  non-importation; 
Chowan  favored  economy  and  the  promotion  of  manu- 
factures ;  while  Johnston  simply  indicated  a  willingness 
to  abide  by  the  findings  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
The  necessity  of  suspending  debt  collections  on  some 
equitable  principle,  in  case  of  non-intercourse,  was  noted 
by  Anson ;  but  Granville  County  and  Halifax  showed  a 
distinct  repugnance  to  the  policy  which  had  attained 
considerable  local  popularity  in  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
and  declared  themselves  explicitly  in  favor  of  keeping  all 
courts  open.  Anson  and  Rowan  announced  themselves 
in  favor  of  a  boycott  of  such  provinces  as  declined  to 
enter  the  general  measures,  the  latter  county  also  in- 
veighing against  the  slave  trade  as  an  obstacle  to  a  free 
immigration  and  the  development  of  manufacturing. 

^  S.  C.  Gaz.,  Sept.  12,  1774;  also  A'.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1016- 
1017. 

^  Only  six  sets  of  resolutions  have  been  examined;  in  chronological 
order:  Rowan,  Johnston,  Granville,  Anson  and  Chowan  counties,  and 
the  town  of  Halifax.     Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1024-1026,  1029-1038. 


372  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

When  Governor  Martin  got  wind  of  these  proceedings, 
he  issued  a  proclamation  on  August  13,  forbidding  such 
"  illegal  Meetings  "  and  particularly  the  provincial  meet- 
ing, which  was  soon  to  occur/  The  pronunciamento  had 
the  same  effect  as  the  executive  interdicts,  in  other  prov- 
inces, of  the  right  of  the  people  to  organize  and  act.  The 
provincial  convention  of  August  25  assembled  at  Newbern 
with  a  representation  from  thirty-two  of  the  thirty-eight 
counties  and  two  of  the  six  towns,  while  the  governor  and 
his  council  sat  futilely  by.  Governor  Martin  noted  the 
readiness  with  which  the  "  intemperate  resolutions  "  of  the 
Virginia  convention  were  "re-echoed;"^  but  it  is  possible 
that  a  complete  collection  of  county  resolutions  would  show 
that  the  Newbern  meeting  merely  reflected  the  views  of  the 
county  gatherings.'^  The  convention  chose  delegates  to  the 
Continental  Congress  and  adopted  a  modified  form  of  the 
Virginia  Association.*  In  one  respect  the  association  ex- 
ceeded the  Virginia  plan,  for  a  threat  of  boycott  was  held 
up  over  any  province,  or  any  town  or  individual  within  the 

'5.  C.  Gaz.,  Sept.  12,  1774;  also  A''.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix.  pp.  1029- 
1030, 

^4  Ant.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  761-762. 

^  However,  it  is  impossible  to  know  what  weight  to  give,  at  this  time, 
to  the  old  Regulator  antipathy  to  the  personnel  of  the  tidewater  radi- 
cals. Vide  Bassett,  J.  S.,  "The  Regulators  of  North  Carolina,"  Am. 
Hist.  Assn.  Rep.  '1894),  pp.  209-210. 

♦No  "  East  India  tea"  was  to  be  used  after  September  10.  I774-  Be- 
ginning with  January  i,  1775,  there  should  be  a  total  stoppage  of  all 
East  Indian  and  all  British  importations,  by  way  of  Great  Britain  or  the 
West  Indies,  except  medicines;  after  November  i.  I774.  no  slaves  should 
be  imported  from  any  part  of  the  world.  Unless  American  grievances 
were  redressed  before  October  i,  177S,  a  non-exportation  to  Great 
Britain  was  to  become  effective.  Merchants  were  warned  to  continue 
their  customary  prices.  Committees  were  to  be  chosen  to  supervise 
the  execution  of  the  association  and  to  correspond  with  the  provincial 
committee  of  correspondence.  Pa.  Caz.,  Sept.  16.  1774;  also  N.  C. 
Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1041-1049. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  373 

province,  which  failed  to  adopt  the  plan  formulated  by  the 
Continental  Congress. 

The  first  news  of  the  Boston  Port  Act  reached  Charleston 
on  May  31  in  a  letter  from  the  Philadelphia  committee 
transmitting  the  Boston  circular  letter/  Peter  Timothy's 
newspaper  took  the  lead  in  declaring  that  America  had 
never  faced  a  more  critical  time,  that  South  Carolina,  like 
Boston,  had  obstructed  the  tea  act,  and  that  the  time  had 
come  to  sacrifice  private  interest,  to  abolish  all  parties  and 
distinctions  and  combine  in  a  general  non-importation  and, 
if  necessary,  non-exportation.^  But  in  spite  of  the  best 
efforts  of  Timothy  and  Chris  Gadsden,^  private  'interest 
continued  to  assert  itself  and  economic  groups  and  distinc- 
tions became  more  clearly  defined  than  on  any  earlier  occa- 
sion. 

The  opposition  to  a  total  suspension  of  trade  centered 
very  largely  in  the  merchants  and  factors,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  rice  planters,  on  the  other.  The  Norfolk  story  of 
the  Boston  fox  that  had  lost  his  tail  gained  currency  with 

'  .S".  C.  Gaz.,  June  6,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  370. 

"" S.  C.  Gaz.,  June  13,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  382-384. 

'As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  Gadsden  himself,  though  possessing 
important  mercantile  interests  as  well  as  planting  connections,  acted 
politically  with  an  entire  disregard  of  self-interest.  This  is  shown 
strikingly  in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Samuel  Adams  on  June  5,  1774:  "I 
have  been  above  Seven  Years  at  hard  Labour  and  the  Utmost  Risk  of 
my  Constitution  about  One  of  the  most  extensive  Quays  in  America 
.  .  at  which  thirty  of  the  Largest  Ships  that  can  come  over  our  Ban- 
can  be  Loading  at  the  Same  time  .  .  •  and  have  exceeding  good  and 
Convenient  Stores  already  Erected  thereon  Sufficient  to  Contain  i6ooO' 
Teirces  of  Rice;  in  Short  in  this  Afifair,  all  my  Fortune  is  embarked 
.  .  no  motives  whatever  will  make  me  neglect  or  Slacken  in  the 
Common  Cause,  as  I  hope  I  would  sooner  see  every  inch  of  my  Quay 
(my  whole  Fortune)  totally  destroyed  Rather  than  be  even  Silent  .  .  . 
let  the  ministry  change  our  Ports  of  Entrey  to  what  distance  from 
Charleston  and  as  Often  as  the  Devil  shall  put  it  in  their  heads."  Bos. 
Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp.  509-511. 


374  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  trading  body/  The  merchants  faced  losses  in  case 
either  importation  or  exportation  should  be  stopped;  they 
preferred  the  former  measure  to  the  latter,  if  necessity 
pressed,  but  were  determined  to  delay  a  decision  on  either 
as  long  as  possible.  xA.s  for  the  rice  planters,  they  were 
opposed  to  a  stoppage  of  exports,  at  least  until  November  i 
when  the  rice  from  the  present  crop  had  been  shipped  off 
and  the  time  for  a  new  planting  had  arrived.^  The  mer- 
cantile and  planting  interests  found  it  easy  to  develop  a 
public  opinion  in  favor  of  a  postponement  of  all  positive 
measures  until  a  general  congress,  because  the  people  in 
general  were  inclined  to  look  askance  at  a  northern  invita- 
tion to  enter  a  non-intercourse  regulation  when  they  re- 
membered "  the  Overhasty  breaking  through  and  forsaking 
the  first  Resolution  [four  years  earlier]  without  previously 
Consulting  or  so  much  as  Acquainting  our  Committee," 
and  when  they  observed  that  no  commercial  province  had 
entered  the  measure  which  the  South  Carolinians  were 
asked  to  adopt  by  Boston.^ 

On  June  13  the  General  Committee  at  Charleston  sum- 
moned a  "  General  Meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  this 
Colony  "  for  Wednesday,  July  6,  at  Charleston,  and  dis- 
patched circular  letters  to  leading  men  throughout  the  prov- 
ince   urging    them    to    send    representatives.*      Timothy's 

'  "  Non  Quis  sed  Quid  "  in  S.  C.  Gaz.,  July  4,  1774. 

^  Letter  of  Gadsden  to  Hancock  and  others,  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papeis, 
vol.  ii,  pp,  517-518.  The  planters  had  another  motive  for  temporizing 
in  that  Parliament  had  under  advisement  a  renewal  of  the  act  authoriz- 
ing the  shipment  of  rice  from  South  Carolina  to  the  West  Indies  and 
the  southern  parts  of  Europe.  The  renewal  was  granted  for  seven  years 
on  June  2  (14  George  III,  c.  67),  but  the  fact  was  probably  not  known 
in  South  Carolina  until  some  weeks  later. 

^Letters  of  Gadsden  and  Timothy  to  S.  Adams,  Bos.  Com.  Cor. 
Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp.  509-511,  529-532. 

*4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  408;  also  5".  C.  Gaz.,  June  13,  1774. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  375 

Gazette  contained  articles  arguing  for  decisive  measures  at 
the  coming  meeting.  "A  Carolinian  "  insisted  on  specific 
instructions  to  the  delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress 
for  a  very  general  suspension  of  trade  w^ith  Great  Britain, 
the  West  Indies  and  Africa,  and  exhorted  that  "  one  com- 
mon Soul  animate  the  Merchant,  the  Planter  and  the  Trades- 
man." ^  "  Non  Quis  sed  Quid  "  gave  his  pen  to  the  advo- 
cacy of  a  modified  non-importation,  and  told  the  planters 
and  merchants  that  this  expedient  would  give  them  a  chance 
to  extricate  themselves  from  debt.^  Meantime,  the  newly- 
formed  Chamber  of  Commerce  had  become  the  center  of 
discussion  as  to  what  should  be  the  proper  course  for  the 
body  of  merchants  to  take.  On  July  6,  before  the  meeting 
assembled  in  the  Exchange,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  de- 
cided not  to  accede  to  any  measure  of  non-importation  or 
non-exportation,  and,  in  order  to  contribute  to  the  defeat 
of  the  same  proposition  in  the  Continental  Congress,  they 
drew  up  a  slate  of  candidates  who  held  the  same  view  and 
pledged  their  support  to  them.^ 

The  Charleston  meeting,  comprising  one  hundred  and 
four  members,  was  the  largest  public  assemblage  that  had 
ever  been  held  in  that  town.  From  the  standpoint  of  the 
representative  principle,  it  was  defective  in  many  respects, 
for  some  counties  elected  ten  delegates,  others  less,  two 
counties  and  one  parish  sent  no  representation,  and  the  Gen- 
eral Committee  of  forty-five  represented  Charleston.  But 
the  leaders  of  all  factions  were  well  pleased  with  the  mis- 

'5".  C.  Gaz.,  June  20,  27,  1774. 

"^ Ibid.,  July  4,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  508-512. 

^This  account  of  the  pjeneral  meeting  is  based  chiefly  on:  Drayton, 
Memoirs,  vol.  i,  pp.  112-132;  official  record  in  S.  C.  Gaz.,  July  11, 
1774.  ^\=,o4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp,  525-527;  three  epistolary  accounts, 
ibid.,  pp.  525,  531-534;  Edward  Rutledge's  account,  Izard,  R.,  Corres- 
pondence, vol.  i,  pp.  2-5. 


Z7^ 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


cellaneous  gathering,  for  it  afforded  an  excellent  opportun- 
ity for  political  manipulation.  Indeed,  one  of  the  very  first 
resolutions  adopted  provided  that  votes  should  be  given  by 
each  person  present  and  not  by  parishes,  and  that  "  whoever 
came  there  might  give  his  vote."  After  the  adoption  of 
resolutions  for  asserting  American  rights,  the  debates  of 
the  first  two  days  turned  upon  a  consideration  of  a  prac- 
tical application  of  the  declaration  of  the  meeting :  "  to 
leave  no  justifiable  means  untried  to  procure  a  repeal "  of 
the  oppressive  acts  of  Parliament.  The  one  party  favored 
the  sending  of  delegates  to  Congress  with  unconditional  in- 
structions, and  the  adoption  in  the  meantime  of  the  Boston 
proposal  of  a  non-importation  and  non-exportation.  The 
other  party  favored  restricted  instructions  and  the  post- 
ponement of  all  measures  until  the  Congress. 

In  favor  of  the  Boston  circular  letter,  the  radical  speakers 
resorted  to  sensational  delineations  of  the  fate  awaiting 
South  Carolina  from  British  tyranny,  and  repeated  the 
telling  arguments  which  had  become  hackneyed  in  similar 
controversies  in  other  provinces.  By  the  opposing  party,  it 
was  maintained  that  non-intercourse  would  ruin  thousands 
in  the  province;  that  if  South  Carolina  entered  into  it,  there 
was  no  assurance  that  other  provinces  would  follow,  and 
indeed  much  evidence  to  the  contrary.  It  was  further 
argued  that  the  formulation  of  a  uniform  plan  was  the 
proper  function  of  a  general  congress,  and  that  even  that 
body  ought  not  adopt  the  measure  until  after  petitions  and 
remonstrances  had  failed  of  effect.  When  the  vote  was 
taken  on  the  second  day,  it  was  found  that  the  proposal  for 
an  immediate  non-intercourse  was  rejected. 

The  fight  was  warmly  renewed,  in  altered  form,  over  the 
question  of  what  instructions  the  delegates  to  the  Congress 
should  be  given,  the  radicals  contending  that  the  powers  of 
the  delegates  should  be  unrestricted.    By  a  close  vote  it  was 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


377 


decided  that  the  delegates  should  be  granted  "  full  power 
and  authority  "  to  agree  to  "  legal  measures  "  for  obtaining 
a  redress  of  grievances,  and  the  moderates  found  solace  in 
the  clause  declaring  that  the  South  Carolina  delegates  must 
concur  in  any  measure  of  the  Congress  before  it  became 
binding  on  the  province.  Victory  now  lay  clearly  with  the 
party  that  could  control  the  personnel  of  the  delegation. 

It  was  provided  that  a  vote  for  this  purpose  should  be 
taken  that  very  day  from  two  o'clock  to  six,  and  that  every 
free  white  in  the  whole  province  should  be  entitled  to  vote — 
an  arrangement  that  was  a  thin  covering  for  a  strategem 
concocted  in  the  Chamber  of  Commerce.  The  merchants 
had  in  mind  to  elect  Henry  Middleton,  John  Rutledge, 
Charles  Pinckney,  Miles  Brewton  and  Rawlins  Lowndes, 
men  who  stood  for  moderate  measures  and  opposed  non- 
intercourse  except  as  an  ultimate  resort.^  The  radicals  con- 
centrated their  strength  on  Gadsden,  Thomas  Lynch  and 
Edward  Rutledge,  and  concurred,  it  would  appear,  in  the 
nominations  of  Aliddleton  and  John  Rutledge.  Just  what 
the  object  of  the  radicals  was  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend 
now,  as  Edward  Rutledge.  one  of  their  nominees,  had 
clearly  identified  himself  with  the  moderate  element  in  the 
debates  of  the  meeting.  However,  he  was  Gadsden's  son- 
in-law\  The  merchants  went  to  the  poll  in  a  body,  and  also 
sent  for  their  clerks  to  come  and  vote.  But  they  had  over- 
reached themselves;  the  radicals  took  alarm  at  such  mobil- 
izing of  voters.  "  ran  to  all  parts  of  the  town  to  collect 
people  and  bring  them  to  the  poll."  In  consequence,  the 
slate  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  sufifered  defeat,  save  the 

'  For  the  opinions  held  by  John  and  Edward  Rutledge,  vide  Izard, 
Correspondence ,  vol.  i,  pp.  ^-5;  by  i\Iiles  Brewton,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol. 
i,  p.  534.  The  South  Carolina  delegates  shifted  their  position  some- 
what when  they  reached  the  Continental  Congress,  but  rheir  new  posi- 
tion, as  we  shall  see,  served  the  purposes  of  their  friends  at  home  as 
well  as  their  original  one. 


378  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

two  candidates  upon  whom  both  factions  had  joined;  and 
Gadsden,  Lynch  and  Edward  Rutledge  were  chosen  in  ad- 
dition, by  a  majority  of  almost  four  hundred.  Notwith- 
standing, Edward  Rutledge's  presence  on  the  delegation 
assured  the  moderates  a  safe  majority. 

On  the  third  and  last  day,  the  meeting  resolved  to  ap- 
point a  general  committee  for  the  province  in  place  of  the 
existing  committee  of  forty-five.  The  new  committee  was 
authorized  to  correspond  with  the  other  provinces  and  to 
"do  all  matters  and  things  necessary  "  to  carry  the  resolu- 
tions into  execution,  a  phraseolog}^  which  virtually  vested 
the  committee  with  unlimited  power  during  its  existence. 
The  committee  was  then  carefully  constituted  to  exercise 
this  power  in  an  approved  manner.  The  membership  was 
fixed  at  ninety-nine;  fifteen  merchants  and  fifteen  mechanics 
represented  Charleston,  and  sixty-nine  planters,  chosen 
forthwith  by  the  meeting  and  not  by  the  rural  districts,  were 
designated  to  represent  the  rest  of  the  province.^ 

The  moderates  had  cause  for  rejoicing;  but  the  radicals 
were  not  dismayed.  They  could  claim  excellent  salvage 
from  the  wreckage :  the  "  Sam  Adams  of  South  Carolina  " 
was  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress ;  the 
delegates  had  powers  to  agree  to  the  measures  supported  by 
the  great  and  magnetic  personages  of  the  sister  provinces; 
and,  finall}',  the  merchants  by  their  active  participation  in 
the  meeting  were  pledged  to  support  such  action  as  Con- 
gress might  take.  Indeed,  some  of  the  people  were  so 
"  uneasy "  over  the  obstructive  tactics  of  the  merchants 
that  several  of  the  latter  felt  it  was  expedient  to  declare 
that  the  merchants  in  general  would  countermand  their 
orders  until  the  results  of  the  Congress  were  known. 

'  Charles  Pinckney  and  Miles  Brewton  were  given  places  on  the  com- 
mittee, and  Peter  Timothy  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  mechanic  mem- 
bers. Pinckney  was  chosen  chairman,  and  Timothy  secretary.  For 
list  of  the  Charleston  members,  vide  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  526-527. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


379 


Greater  semblance  of  legality  was  given  to  the  election  of 
delegates  when  the  Commons  House  of  Assembly  met  on 
August  2.  All  but  five  of  the  members  had  participated  in 
the  Charleston  meeting;  and  by  assembling  privately  at  the 
unusual  hour  of  eight  in  the  morning,  while  the  governor 
still  reclined  in  the  arms  of  Morpheus,  they  succeeded  in 
ratifying  the  election  and  voting  money  for  the  delegates' 
expenses/  In  the  succeeding  weeks,  the  General  Committee 
found  little  else  to  do  than  to  guard  against  tea  importa- 
tions. Two  incidents  occurring  in  late  July  and  early 
August  showed  that  the  committee  believed  in  only  the  most 
moderate  methods  of  resistance.  Two  vessels  arrived  with 
private  consignments  of  tea  for  Charleston  merchants.  In 
each  instance,  the  committee  assured  themselves  that  the 
tea  would  not  be  received  in  Charleston,  and  then  quietly 
waited  for  its  seizure  by  the  customs  officials  at  the  termina- 
tion of  the  twenty-day  period.^ 

If  the  radicals  of  South  Carolina  had  a  difficult  time  in 
maneuvering  their  province  into  line,  the  small  group  of 
radicals  in  Georgia  may  be  said  to  have  had  a  practically 
insurmountable  task.  The  sparse  population  of  that  infant 
province  had  every  reason  to  be  pleased  with  the  home  gov- 
ernment and  none  to  be  displeased.  Not  yet  self-supporting 
as  a  colony,  Georgia  received  an  annual  subsidy  from  Par- 
liament, besides  money  and  presents  intended  for  the  In- 
dians.^    This  condition  served  to  give  Georgia  "as  many 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  532.  671-672;  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i,  pp. 
137-141.  Governor  Bull  wrote  to  Dartmouth  the  next  day:  "Your 
Lordship  will  see  by  this  instance  with  what  perseverance,  secrecy  and 
unanimity,  they  form  and  conduct  their  designs;  how  obedient  the  body 
is  to  the  heads,  and  how  faithful  in  their  secrets."  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol. 
i,  p.  672. 

'^  The  Magna  Cha7-ta  and  the  Briton.  S.  C.  Gaz.,  June  27,  July  4 
25,  Sept.  19,  1774. 

^  Letter  from  a  Georgian,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  733. 


380  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

place-men  and  publick  officers  with  their  connections,  as  the 
largest  and  most  populous  Government  on  the  Continent, 
and  those  with  independent  salaries  from  Government."  ^ 
Furthermore,  the  inhabitants  were  in  constant  peril  of  an 
attack  from  the  Creeks,  who  threatened  to  wipe  out  the 
back-countr>'  settlements.  "  We  have  an  enemy  at  our  backs, 
who  but  very  lately  put  us  into  the  utmost  consternation," 
wrote  a  Georgian.  "We  fled  at  their  approach;  we  left 
our  property  at  their  mercy;  and  we  have  implored  the 
assistance  of  Great-Britain  to  humble  these  haughty  Creeks. 
.  .  .  Our  entering  into  resolutions  against  the  Government, 
in  the  present  case,  can  answer  no  end  but  to  injure  our  in- 
fant province,  by  provoking  the  Mother  Country  to  desert 
us."  ^  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  frontier  parishes  were 
unsympathetic  to  the  propa^nda  against  Parliament. 

In  view  of  these  facts.  I^he  radicals  were  unsuccessful  in 
arousing  indignation  by  references  to  past  injustices,  especi- 
ally as  they  had  failed  signally  in  the  earlier  years  in  ob- 
taining effective  action  from  Georgia.  There  was  only  a 
handful  of  radicals  in  the  province — a  few  active  ones  in 
Christ  Church  Parish,  wherein  lay  the  coast  town  of  Savan- 
nah, and  a  compact  group,  of  New  England  nativity,  in  St. 
John's  Parish,  immediately  to  the  south.V  Late  in  July,  at 
the  instance  of  the  South  Carolina  radicals,*  appeals  began 

'  Letter  from  Savannah  correspondent  in  Pa.  C'az..  Dec.  28.  1774: 
also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1033-1034. 

^"  Mercurius  "  in  Ga.  Gaz..  Aug.  10,  1774. 

''St.  John's  Parish  was  appropriately  named  "  Liberty  County"  at  a 
later  time.  Medway.  the  chief  settlement,  was  founded  by  people  from 
Dorchester,  Mass.,  after  they  had  failed  in  a  similar  enterprise  in  South 
Carolina.  These  folks  "still  retain  a  strong  tincture  of  Republican  or 
Oliverian  principles,"  wrote  Governor  Wright  to  Dartmouth.  White, 
Ga.  Hist.  Colls.,  p.  523. 

*  Letter  of  Wright  to  Dartmouth,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  633-634. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  381 

to  appear  in  the  Georgia  Gazette  exhorting  the  inhabitants 
to  make  common  cause  with  Boston/  In  "  The  Case 
stated,"  it  was  declared  that  the  single  question  was:  had 
Parliament  a  right  to  levy  what  sums  of  money  on  the 
Americans  they  pleased  and  in  what  manner  they  pleased; 
for  "  they  that  have  a  right  or  power  to  put  a  duty  on  my 
tea  have  an  equal  right  to  put  a  duty  on  my  bread,  and  why 
not  on  my  breath,  why  not  on  my  daylight  and  smoak,  why 
not  on  everything?"  The  answer  of  the  moderates  rang 
clear  and  true :  the  real  issue  was  not  one  of  taxation  but 
"  whether  Americans  have  a  right  to  destroy  private  prop- 
erty with  impunity."  "  That  the  India  Company  did  send 
tea  to  Boston  on  their  own  account  is  undeniable,"  declared 
the  writer.  "  That  they  had  a  right  so  to  do  and  to  under- 
sell the  Merchants  there  (or  rather  the  Smugglers)  is 
equally  undeniable."  and  the  destructive  act  of  the  Boston- 
ians  "  must,  in  the  judgment  of  sober  reason,  be  highly 
criminal  and  worthy  of  exemplary  punishment."  ^ 

On  July  20  the  Ga::cttc  contained  an  unsigned  call  for  a 
provincial  meeting  of  delegates  at  Savannah.  A  meeting 
was  accordingly  held  at  the  Watch-House  on  Wednesday, 
July  27.^  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  how  many  persons 
were  present,  but  a  radical  account  claimed  that  "  upwards 
of  an  hundred  from  one  Parish  [St.  John's]  came  resolved 
on  an  agreement  not  to  import  or  use  British  manufactures 
till  America  shall  be  restored  to  her  constitutional  rights." 
It  is  clear  that  the  great  body  of  the  province  was  unrepre- 
sented.    After  several  had  declined  the  doubtful  honor, 

'  "  The  Case  stated  "  and  "  A  Georgian"  in  issue  of  July  27,  1774. 

^"Mercurius"  in  ibid.,  Aug.  10,  1774. 

'This  narrative  is  based  chiefly  on  the  radical  accounts  in  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  638-63Q;  the  moderate  version  in  a  protest  of  Savan- 
nah inhabitants,  Ga.  Gaz.,  Sept.  7,  1774;  and  the  radical  rejoinder  in 
ibid.,  Sept.  21. 


382  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

John  Glenn  was  chosen  chairman.  A  motion  was  made  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  draft  resolutions  "  nearly  similar 
to  those  of  the  Northern  Provinces,"  but  it  was  lost  by  "  a 
large  majority  of  the  respectable  inhabitants."  Letters 
were  then  read  from  the  General  Committee  of  South  Caro- 
lina and  other  northern  committees;  and  while  the  reading 
was  going  on,  many  moderates,  believing  that  the  main  issue 
had  been  settled,  withdrew  from  the  meeting.  The  radicals 
quietly  swelled  their  own  numbers  by  gathering  in  "  several 
transients  and  other  inconsiderate  people;"  and  a  motion 
for  a  committee  was  put  a  second  time  and  announced  as 
carried,  in  face  of  the  protest  of  several  gentlemen  that,  if 
the  names  of  the  persons  on  both  sides  were  put  down,  it 
would  appear  that  a  majority  of  the  freeholders  present 
opposed  the  motion.  A  committee  of  thirty-one  was  forth- 
with chosen ;  but  it  was  deemed  wiser,  in  view  of  the  irreg- 
ular composition  of  the  convention  and  the  high  indigna- 
tion of  the  moderate  party,  to  postpone  the  adoption  of 
resolutions  until  a  convention  of  regularly-appointed  dele- 
gates should  meet  at  Savannah  on  August  10.  It  was  voted, 
however,  that  the  resolutions  agreed  upon  at  the  forthcom- 
ing meeting  by  a  majority  of  those  present  "  should  be 
deemed  the  sense  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  Province." 

When  Governor  Wright  learned  that  the  committee  was 
summoning  the  several  parishes  and  districts  to  a  provincial 
convention,  he  adopted  the  usual  course  of  royal  executives, 
and  on  August  5  interposed  a  proclamation  denouncing  the 
action  as  "unconstitutional,  illegal  and  punishable  by  law."  ^ 
More  indicative  of  public  opinion  was  a  protest  against  the 
coming  meeting,  signed  by  forty-six  inhabitants  of  St.  Paul, 
one  of  the  most  populous  parishes  of  the  province.  The 
paper  declared  that  since  the  Georgians  were  not  involved 

'  5",  C.  Gaz.,  Sept.  12,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  699-700. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  383 

in  the  same  guilt  as  the  Bostonians,  they  could  have  no 
business  in  making  themselves  partakers  of  the  ill-conse- 
quences of  that  guilt;  and  particular  stress  was  laid  on  the 
fact  that  "  the  persons  who  are  most  active  on  this  occasion 
are  chiefly  those  whose  property  lies  in  or  near  Savannah; 
and  therefore  are  not  so  immediately  exposed  to  the  bad 
effects  of  an  Indian  war;  whereas  the  back  settlements  of 
this  province,  and  our  parish  in  particular,  would  most  cer- 
tainly be  laid  waste  and  depopulated,  unless  we  receive  such 
powerful  aid  and  assistance  as  none  but  Great-Britain  can 
give."  ^ 

The  tenth  of  August  arrived,  and,  according  to  the 
authorized  account  published  in  the  Ga^^ette,  a  "  General 
Meeting  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Province  "  assembled  at 
Savannah  and  "  ncminc  contradicente  "  adopted  resolutions 
condemning  the  coercive  acts  as  illegal  and  pledging  the 
concurrence  of  Georgia  "  in  every  constitutional  measure  " 
for  redress  adopted  by  the  sister  provinces."  The  deputies 
present  were  added  to  the  existing  committee  of  thirty-one 
to  act  as  a  General  Committee  for  the  province.  This 
meager  and  colorless  account  intentionally  failed  to  disclose 
the  tense  excitement  and  unscrupulous  methods  that  pre- 
vailed at  the  meeting,  or  even  the  fact,  admitted  later  by  a 
radical,  that  a  motion  to  send  delegates  to  the  Continental 
Congress  failed  of  adoption.^  But  the  facts,  suppressed  in 
the  official  version  were  voluntarily  supplied  by  indignation 
meetings  in  various  parts  of  the  province.  A  protest,  signed 
by  James  Habersham,  councillor  and  merchant,  and  one 
hundred  and  one  other  inhabitants  of  Savannah  and  Christ 

'Now  McDuffie  County.  Ga.  Gaz.,  Oct.  12,  1774;  incorrectly- 
printed  in  Ga.  Rev.  Recs.,  vol.  i,  pp.  24-26. 

"^Ga.  Gaz.,  Aug.  17,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  70C-70T. 

^Letter  from  St.  John's  Parish;  Pa.  Journ.,  Oct.  5,  1774;  also  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp    766-767. 


384 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Church  Parish,  recounted  the  devious  practices  of  the  rad- 
icals at  the  meeting  of  July  27,  and  charged  that  the  im- 
portant parish  of  St.  Paul  was  not  represented  at  the  meet- 
ing of  August  10  and  that  several  other  parishes  had  been 
induced  to  send  deputies  through  a  misrepresentation  of  the 
purpose  of  the  gathering.  It  was  further  alleged  that,  in 
absence  of  notification  to  the  contrary,  all  but  the  select 
few  in  the  secret  supposed  that  the  second  meeting  would  be 
held  at  the  same  place  as  the  earlier  one,  but  in  fact  it  "  was 
held  in  a  tavern,  with  the  door  shut  for  a  considerable  time, 
and  it  is  said  twenty-six  persons  answered  for  the  whole 
province  and  undertook  to  bind  them  by  Resolution;  and 
when  several  gentlemen  attempted  to  go  in,  the  tavern- 
keeper,  who  stood  at  the  door  with  a  list  in  his  hand,  re- 
fused them  admittance,  because  their  names  were  not  men- 
tioned in  that  list."  ' 

These  charges  were  elaborated  and  confirmed  by  pro- 
tests emanating  from  three  other  parishes.  The  burden  of 
three  different  protests  from  St.  Paul  Parish,  signed  in  all 
by  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  names,  was  that  the  meet- 
ing had  been  secret,  small,  unrepresentative,  and  even,  ac- 
cording to  the  belief  of  the  Augusta  signers,  illegal.^  From 
one  portion  of  St.  George  Parish  came  the  plaint  that, 
though  many  of  the  subscribers  had  voted  to  send  deputies 
to  the  Savannah  meeting,  "  it  was  because  we  were  told  that 
unless  we  did  send  some  persons  there,  we  would  have  the 
Stamp  Act  put  in  force,"  while  the  western  district  of  the 
same  parish  announced  that  they  had  known  nothing  of  the 

'  Ga.  Gaz.,  Sept.  7,  1774;  reprinted  in  incomplete  form  in  Ga.  Rev. 
Recs.,  vol.  i,  pp.  18-21. 

-Protests  from  126  inhabitants  of  the  Kyoka  and  Broad  River  Settle- 
ments, 123  inhabitants  of  the  township  of  Wrightsborough  and  places 
adjacent,  and  from  38  inhabitants  of  the  town  and  district  of  Augusta; 
Ga.  Gaz.,  Oct.  12,  1774;  aho  Ga.  Rev.  Recs..  vol.  i,  pp.  22-24,  27-30, 
where  the  Augusta  resolves  are  given  inaccuratelj-. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  385 

appointment  of  deputies/  In  similar  strain,  a  protest  from 
St.  Mathevv  Parish  declared  that  the  signers  there  had  been 
told  that  the  meeting  would  petition  the  king  for  mercy  for 
Boston  "  as  a  child  begs  a  father  when  he  expects  correc- 
tion," and  that  unless  they  signed,  the  Stamp  Act  would  be 
imposed  on  them." 

The  radicals  made  no  effective  answer  to  these  apocryphal 
accounts.^  A  publication  of  the  committee  in  the  Gazette 
of  September  21  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  only  about 
one-fifth  of  the  effective  men  in  the  parish  had  signed  the 
Savannah  protest;  it  justified  the  presence  of  "transient 
and  inconsiderable  persons  "  at  public  meetings,  and  denied 
that  the  doors  of  the  tavern  had  been  closed,  although  ac- 
knowledging that  several  persons  had  been  denied  admit- 
tance without  the  knowledge  of  the  committee.  These  facts 
were,  in  any  case,  non-essential,  it  was  declared,  for  the 
great  issue  was  whether  Parliament  had  the  right  to  tax 
America  and  whether  or  not  Boston  was  suffering  in  the 
common  cause. 

The  undaunted  radicals  of  St.  John's  Parish  made  one 

'Protests  from  123  inhabitants  of  St.  George  Parish  and  from  53  in- 
habitants of  Queensborough  and  the  western  district  of  the  parish;  Ga. 
Gaz.,  Sept.  28,  1774;  also  S.  C.  &  Am.  Gert.  Gaz.,  Oct.  7. 

'The  protest  bore  35  signatures  to  the  body  of  it  and  12  others  to  an 
addendum;  Ga.  Gaz.,  Sept.  2,  1774;  also  Ga.  Rev.  Recs.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
32-34. 

*  Apparently  it  was  left  for  the  patriotic  historians  writing  in  after 
years  to  discover  that  the  papers  of  protest  had  been  "placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  governors'  influential  friends  and  sent  in  different  direc- 
tions over  the  country  to  obtain  subscribers,  allowing  a  sum  of  money 
to  each  of  those  persons  proportioned  to  the  number  of  subscribers  they 
obtained,"  and  that  in  some  instances  the  number  of  signers  exceeded 
the  population  of  the  parishes  or  were,  in  part,  recruited  from  those 
who  had  long  since  passed  away.  McCall,  H..  History  of  Ga.  (1816) 
vol.  ii,  pp.  24  25.  For  Governor  Wright's  letters  to  Dartmouth,  stat, 
ing  that  the  papers  of  protest  had  been  written  by  the  people  themselves, 
vide  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xviii,  pp.  141-142. 


386  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

more  ettort  to  secure  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  Conti- 
nental Congress,  and  passed  resolutions  that  they  would 
join  with  a  majority  of  the  parishes  for  that  purpose.  A 
meeting  was  held  in  St.  John's  Parish  on  August  30,  at 
which  appeared  deputies  from  the  parishes  of  St.  George 
and  St.  David;  and  this  meager  gathering  went  so  far  as 
to  nominate  a  delegate  (Dr.  Lyman  Hall  in  all  probability) 
to  go  to  the  Congress,  if  the  other  parishes  assented.^  But 
that  assent  was  never  forthcoming.  /Georgia  was  the  only 
one  of  the  thirteen  provinces  that  failed  to  be  represented  at 
the  First  Continental  Congress.\ 

zllii  the  period  intervening  between  the  appointment  of 
delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress  in  the  various  prov- 
inces and  the  day  of  the  adjournment  of  that  body,  sundry 
incidents  indicated  that  the  activity  and  inifiuence  of  the 
radicals  was  increasing  with  the  passage  of  the  weeks.  In 
^  the  commercial  provinces,  the  most  striking  development 
was  the  combination  of  workingmen  of  two  of  the  chief 
cities  to  withhold  their  labor  from  the  British  authorities  at 
Boston.  Early  in  September,  1774,  Governor  Gage  sought 
to  hire  Boston  workingmen  for  fortifying  Boston  Neck, 
but  was  met  with  refusals  wherever  he  turned.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Mechanics  of  Boston,  learning  that  the  governor 
would  now  apply  at  New  York,  warned  their  New  York 
brethren  of  this  fact.^  Independently  of  the  Boston  trans- 
actions, the  radicals  at  New  York  had  already  begun  to 
bring  pressure  to  bear  on  labor  contractors  to  prevent  the 
exportation  of  carpenters  to  Boston,  and  upon  the  mer- 
chants to  prevent  the  use  of  their  vessels  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  troops  and  military  stores.^     The  Boston  warning 

^ Pa.  Journ.,  Oct.  5,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  766-767. 
^A''.  Y.  Jourti.,  Sept.  29,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  803-804. 
^ Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  782;  also  N.  V.  Journ.,  Sept.  15,  1774. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  387 

had  the  desired  effect;  ^nd  on  September  24  the  New  York 
Committee  of  Mechanics  gave  a  unanimous  vote  of  thanks 
to  "  those  worthy  Mechanicks  of  this  city  who  have  de- 
clined to  aid  or  assist  in  the  erecting  of  fortifications  on 
Boston  Neck  .  .  ."  ' 

Aided  by  the  pressure  of  the  widespread  unemployment, 
Gage  was  successful,  a  little  later,  in  getting  Boston  carpen- 
ters and  masons  to  work  on  barracks  for  the  soldiers  for  a 
few  days.'  The  apparent  change  of  front  caused  a  joint 
committee  of  the  selectmen  and  members  of  the  committee 
of  correspondence  on  September  24  to  vote  their  opinion 
that  the  probable  result  of  such  disloyal  conduct  would  be 
the  withholding  of  contributions  from  Boston  by  other 
provinces/"  Two  days  later  the  workingmen  deserted  their 
jobs.*  (2n  order  to-  seal  the  labor  market  of  the  surrounding 
country  to  the  British  commander,  a  meeting,  composed  of 
the  committees  of  thirteen  towns,  resolved  that,  should  any 
inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  or  the  neighboring  provinces 
supply  the  troops  at  Boston  "  with  labour,  lumber,  joists, 
spars,  pickets,  straw,  bricks,  or  any  materials  whatsoever 
which  may  furnish  them  with  requisites  to  annoy  or  in  any 
way  distress  "  the  citizens,  they  should  be  deemed  "  most 
inveterate  enemies  "  and  ought  to  be  prevented  and  de- 
feated. The  leading  towns  represented  at  the  meeting  ap- 
pointed ''  Committees  of  Observation  and  Prevention  "  to 
enforce  the  resolves,  and  the  resolves  were  communicated 
to  every  town  in  the  province."'    The  rural  towns  took  heed ; 

'  A^.  V.  Journ.,  Sept.  29,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  803-804. 

^ Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  804. 

•^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  802;  also  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Sept.  26,  1774. 

*  Ibid.,  Oct.  3,  1774;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  814-815,  820. 

•'The  committees  in  attendance  were  from  Boston,  Braintree,  Cam- 
bridge, Charlestown,  Dedham,  Dorchester,  Maiden,  Milton,  Mystic, 
Roxbury,  Stow,  Watertown  and  Woburn.  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  807-808; 
also  N.  Y.  Journ..  Oct.  20,  1774. 


388 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


and  the  labor  boycott  was  made  effective/  The  troops  did 
not  get  into  barracks  until  November,  after  Gage  had  sent 
to  Nova  Scotia  for  fifty  carpenters  and  bricklayers  and  had 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  few  additional  ones  from  New 
Hampshire  through  Governor  Wentworth's  aid.^ 

Gage  was  more  successful  in  dealing  with  merchants. 
Although  the  merchants  at  Philadelphia  refused  contracts 
for  blankets  and  other  supplies  for  the  troops  at  Boston, 
those  at  New  York  lent  a  willing  ear.  When  a  mass  meet- 
ing, called  without  authority  of  the  "  Fifty-One,"  appointed 
a  committee  to  intimidate  the  merchants  in  question,  the 
transactions  were  repudiated  and  denounced  by  the  "  Fifty- 
One,"  and  the  merchants  completed  their  orders.'  In  the 
early  months  of  1775  the  same  problem  arose  in  slightly 
different  form.  Certain  persons  had  been  induced  to  supply 
the  troops  at  Boston  with  wagons,  entrenching  tools  and 
other  equipage  for  field  operations.  At  the  request  of  the 
committees  of  Boston  and  numerous  other  towns,  the  pro- 
vincial congress,  then  in  session,  "  strongly  recommended  " 
that  all  such  persons  should  be  deemed  "  inveterate  enemies 
to  America  "  and  opposed  by  all  reasonable  means.* 

-QSqually  significant  during  these  months  was  the  trend 
toward  violent  opposition  to  the  tea  duty,  noticeable  in  cer- 

'  £".  o.,  the  committee  of  the  little  town  of  Rochester.  N.  H.,  found 
Nicholas  Austin  guilty  of  acting  as  a  labor  contractor  for  the  Boston 
military.  On  his  knees  the  cu'prit  was  made  to  pray  forgiveness  and 
to  pledge  for  the  future  that  he  would  never  act  "  contrary  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  country."  N.  H.  Gaz.,  Nov.  11,  1774;  also  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  974. 

^ Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  q8i.  9QI-992;  Mass.  Gaz.  &  News- Letter,  Nov. 
10,  1774;  N.  Y.  Gaz..  Nov.  21. 

^Ibid.,  Oct.  3,  1774,  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  326-327,  809; 
Golden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  366-368. 

*Mass.  spy,  Feb.  9,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1329-1330. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  389 

tain  portions  of  the  plantation  provinces.  Although  the 
people  had  quietly  paid  the  duty  since  the  partial  repeal  in 
1770,  the  passage  of  the  coercive  acts  and  the  attendant  ex- 
citement in  America  had  wrought  a  change  of  opinion; 
and  with  the  passage  of  months  the  lawless  element  in  the 
community  was  more  and  more  getting  the  upper  handJ:^ 
This  is  best  shown  in  Ihe^episode.  oi-  the  brig  Peggy  Stew- 
art.^ This  vessel  arrived  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  on  Fri- 
day, October  14,  JL774,  laden  with  more  than  a  ton  of  dutied 
tea,  consigned  to  the  local  firm  of  T.  C.  Williams  &  Com- 
pany. The  Peggy  Stewart  was  chiefly  owned  by  Anthony 
Stewart,  of  Annapolis,  but  his  father-in-law,  James  Dick, 
had  a  financial  interest  in  the  venture.  These  two  gentle- 
men had  achieved  unpopularity  on  a  former  occasion 
when,  as  importers  in  the  Good  Intent,  they  had  sought  to 
introduce  British  goods  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people 
of  Annapolis."  The  orders  for  the  tea  had  been  sent  by 
Williams  &  Company  in  May,  1774,  at  a  time  when  other 
Maryland  merchants  were  doing  the  same  thing  without 
arousing  disfavor.^  Immediately  upon  the  arrival  of  the 
brig,  Stewart  hastened  to  pay  the  duty  on  the  tea.  When 
news  of  the  affair  came  to  the  Anne  Anmdel  County  Com- 
mittee a  few  hours  later,  they  convened  a  public  meeting 
in  the  evening  to  consider  what  measures  should  be  taken. 
The  consignees  and  others  concerned  in  the  importation 
were  called  before  the  meeting;  and  it  was  unanimously 

'Mr.  Richard  D.  Fisher,  of  Baltimore,  collected  the  chief  source  ac- 
counts of  this  episode  and  published  them,  with  editorial  comment,  in 
the  Baltimore  News  during  the  years  IQ05-T907.  .A.  scrapbook  of  these 
clippings,  entitled  The  Arso?i  of  the  Peggy  Stewart,  is  in  the  Library  of 
Congress.  Some  of  the  less  accessible  of  these  papers  have  been  re- 
published in  the  Md.  Hist.  Mag.,  vol.  v,  pp.  235-245. 

^  Vide  sup7'a,  pp.  200-201. 

'  Vide  statement  of  Joseph  and  James  Williams  in  Md.  Gaz.,  Oct. 
27,  1774;  also  supra,  p.  245. 


390 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 


resolved  that  the  tea  should  not  be  landed  in  America.  The 
meeting  adjourned  to  Wednesday,  the  nineteenth,  and  for 
the  interim  a  special  committee  was  appointed  to  attend 
the  unloading  of  the  other  merchandise  on  board  the  brig 
and  to  prevent  the  landing  of  the  tea.  Thus  far  the  inci- 
dent did  not  differ  from  many  similar  occurrences.  Appar- 
ently a  concession  from  the  importers  to  the  effect  that  the 
tea  should  be  re-shipped  at  once  or,  at  most,  that  the  tea 
should  be  cast  into  the  sea  would  close  the  incident.  Stew- 
art sought  to  explain  his  action  in  paying  the  duty,  in  a 
broadside  on  Monday,  in  which  he  told  of  the  leaky  condi- 
tion of  the  vessel,  the  need  of  the  fifty-three  souls  on  board 
to  land  after  a  three  months'  voyage,  and  the  impossibility 
of  entering  the  vessel  without  the  tea.  He  expressed  his 
sorrow  for  his  unintentional  transgression. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  the  orderly  elements  in  the  com- 
munity, the  postponement  of  final  action  until  the  public 
meeting  of  Wednesday  proved  to  be  a  tactical  blunder. 
During  the  interval  handbills  were  dispersed  through  the 
nearby  counties  containing  notice  of  the  meeting,  and  pop- 
ular feeling  was  aroused  to  a  high  pitch.  To  the  meeting 
on  Wednesday  came  parties  of  extremists  from  various 
parts  of  the  province  determined  upon  violence :  one  group 
from  Prince  George's  County,  headed  by  Walter  Bowie  (or 
Buior),  a  planter;  one  from  Baltimore  County,  led  by 
Charles  Ridgely,  Jr.,  member  of  the  Assembly;  one  from 
the  town  of  Baltimore,  led  by  Mordecai  Gist  and  John 
Deavor;  one  from  the  head  of  Severn  River,  led  by  Rezen 
Hammond;  and  two  from  Elk  Ridge  in  Anne  Arundel 
County,  headed  respectively  by  Dr.  Ephraim  Howard  and 
Dr.  Warfield.^     When  the  great  assemblage  were  ready 

'Affidavit  of  R.  Caldeleugh,  manager  of  Stewart's  rope  factorj';  Md. 
Hist.  Mag.,  vol.  v,  pp.  241-244.  Cf.  Galloway's  account;  Pa.  Mag., 
vol.  XXV,  pp.  248-253. 


CONTEST  IN  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


391 


for  business,  Stewart  and  the  Williamses  appeared  before 
them  with  an  offer  to  destroy  the  tea  and  to  make  such 
other  amends  as  might  be  desired.  The  Anne  Arundel 
Committee  advised  the  meeting  that  this  offer  should  be 
deemed  sufficient ;  but  the  boisterous  minority  in  attendance 
would  not  have  it  that  way.  "  Aiatters  now  began  to  run 
very  high  and  the  people  to  get  warm,"  declared  a  partici- 
pant later ;  "  some  of  the  Gentlemen  from  Elk  Ridge  and 
Baltimore  Town  insisted  on  burning  the  Vessel  "  as  well 
as  the  tea.'  Charles  Carroll,  the  barrister,  and  Matthias 
Hammond  proposed,  as  a  compromise,  that  the  tea  should 
be  unloaded  and  burnt  under  the  gallows ;  but  the  extrem- 
ists were  beyond  halfway  measures.  "  Old  Mr.  Dick,"  one 
of  the  owners  of  the  brig  and  the  father  of  Stewart's  wife, 
now  gave  his  consent  to  the  destruction  of  the  vessel,  for 
fear  that  the  rage  of  the  mob  would  be  directed  against  the 
Stewart  home  where  Mrs.  Stewart  lay  in  a  critical  condi- 
tion. "  Mr.  Quyn  then  stood  forth,"  averred  the  observer 
already  quoted,  "  and  said  it  was  not  the  sense  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  that  the  Vessell  should  be  destroyed, 
and  made  a  motion  which  was  seconded  that  there  should 
be  a  vote  on  the  Question.  We  had  a  Vote  on  it  and  a 
Majority  of  %  of  the  people;  still  the  few  that  was  for 
destroying  the  Brigg  was  Clamorous  and  insinuated  that  if 
it  Avas  not  done  they  would  prejudice  Mr.  Stewart  more 
than  if  the  vessel  was  burnt;  the  Committee  then  with  the 
Consent  of  Mr.  Dick  declared  that  the  Vessell  and  Tea 

'Galloway's account.  "  Americanus  "  declared  in  the  London /"w^Z/V 
Ledger,  J  an.  4,  1775,  that  the  bitter  feeling  against  the  principals  in  the 
affair  was  caused  by  Stewart's  earlier  activity  in  opposing  the  resolution 
for  the  suspension  of  debt  collections,  and  by  the  jealousy  of  other  merch- 
ants because  Williams  &  Co.  had  a  splendid  assortment  of  merchandise 
onboard.  These  charges  do  not  bear  close  examination.  The  Anne 
Arundel  County  Committee  stigmatized  them  as  "false,  scandalous 
and  malicious."     Afd.  Gaz.  (Annapolis),  Apr.  13,  1775. 


392 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1768-1776 


should  be  burnt."  ^     Stewart  and  the  consignees  made  a 
written  acknowledgment  of  their  ''  most  daring  insult." 

While  preparations  were  being  made  for  burning  the  ves- 
sel, many  of  the  substantial  inhabitants  began  to  believe  that 
undue  weight  had  been  given  to  the  threats  of  the  violent 
minority,  and  determined  to  prevent  the  injustice;  but  as 
they  were  going  to  the  waterfront,  they  were  met  by  ''  poor 
Mr.  Dick,"  who  entreated  them  "  for  God  sake  not  to 
meddle  in  the  matter  "  or  Mr.  Stewart's  house  would  be 
burnt,  which  would  be  a  greater  loss.  The  other  program 
was  therefore  duly  carried  out;  and  the  Peggy  Steward, 
with  sails  and  colors  flying,  was  consumed  in  the  presence 
of  a  great  crowd  of  spectators.  "  This  most  infamous 
and  rascally  affair  .  .  .  ,"  commented  the  observer  quoted 
before,  "  makes  all  men  of  property  reflect  with  horror  on 
their  present  situation  to  have  their  lives  and  propertys  at 
the  disposal  &  mercy  of  a  Mob  .  .  ." 
^Such  an  incident  could  scarcely  have  occurred  six  months, 
or  even  three  months,  earlier  in  a  plantation  province.  The 
truth  was  that  the  leaders  of  an  orderly  opposition  to  Brit- 
ish measures  were  losing  their  mastery  of  the  situation. 
The  destruction  of  the  Peggy  Stezvart  involved  a  monetary 
loss  of  £1896  to  owners  and  consignees.  The  public  meet- 
ing had,  in  effect,  refused  to  accept  as  adequate  an  act  of 
destruction  similar  to  that  which  had  served  to  make  the 
Boston  Tea  Party  heinous  in  the  eyes  of  the  British  home 
government.  That  the  act  was  forced  by  an  ungovernable 
minority  subtracts  in  no  degree  from  the  seriousness  or 
significance  of  the  incident.  In  a  word,  Annapolis  had  out- 
Bostoned  Boston.  \ 

'  That  this  decision  was  forced  by  an  aggressive  minority  is  also  ap- 
parent from  other  contemporary  accounts,  e.  g.:  Eddis,  Letters  from 
America,  no.  xviii;  Ringgold's  account  in  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxv,  pp. 
253-254;  letter  from  Annapolis  in  London  Chronicle,  Dec.  31,  1774. 
The  ingeniously-worded  official  account  does  not  deny  it.  4  Am, 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  885-886. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Adoption  of  the  Continental  Association 
(September-October,  1774) 

The  First  Continental  Congress  was  the  product  of 
many  minds.  More  than  any  other  occurrence  of  the 
eventful  decade,  the  movement  for  an  interprovincial  con- 
gress was  of  spontaneous  origin.  When  the  time  was  ripe, 
the  thought  seemed  to  leap  from  the  minds  of  men  with 
the  thrill  of  an  irresistible  conclusion.  It  would  be  mis- 
leading to  give  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  the  credit  of 
originating  the  idea,  simply  because  the  town  meeting  there 
proposed  a  continental  congress  four  days  before  the  Phila- 
delphia Committee,  six  days  before  the  New  York  Com- 
mittee, and  ten  days  before  the  dissolved  burgesses  of  Vir- 
ginia. All  these  proposals  were  antedated  by  suggestions 
in  private  letters  and  by  a  newspaper  propaganda  to  the 
same  end ;  ^  and  all  advocates  drew  their  inspiration  from 
a  common  source — the  logic  of  the  times. 

^n  its  inception  the  project  of  a  general  congress  was 
favored  —  and  feared  —  by  all  shades  of  opinion,  govern- 
mental and  non-governmental,  conservative,  moderate  and 
radical,  mercantile  and  non-mercantile,"\- Governor  Franklin 
and  "  many  of  the  Friends  of  Government  "  in  New  Jersey 
approved  of  such  a  congress  if  it  should  be  authorized  by 
the  Crown  and  be  composed  of  governors  and  selected  mem- 
bers   of    the    provincial    legislatures."      Joseph    Galloway 

'  For  a  summary  of  newspaper  writings  in  support  of  a  general  con- 
gress, vide  Frothingham,  Rise  of  Reptihlic,  pp.  314,  329,  2Z^-22,2  "• 
"^  I  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  464-465. 

393 


394 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


wanted  a  congress  consisting  preferably  of  delegates 
"  chosen  either  by  the  Representatives  in  Assembly  or  by 
them  in  Convention."  ^  Both  men  desired  to  forestall  a 
resort  to  lawless  action  and  to  have  the  relations  of  the 
mother  country  and  the  colonies  defined  in  enlightened 
terms.  Many  conservatives  of  Massachusetts  believed  that 
a  general  congress  would  be  "  eminently  serviceable ''  in 
prevailing  upon  the  Bostonians  to  make  restitution  to  the 
East  India  Company  and  in  formulating  a  plan  of  perma- 
nent conciliation ;  "  Tories  as  well  as  whigs  bade  the  dele- 
gates God  speed."  "  The  Rhode  Island  legislators  and  the 
Virginians  meeting  at  Raleigh  Tavern  appeared  to  have  in 
mind  a  permanent  union  of  the  provinces  in  annual  con- 
gresses, chosen  by  the  several  legislatures,  for  the  sake  of 
the  common  concerns/  The  merchants  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  wanted  a  congress,  constituted  upon  almost 
any  principle,  in  order  to  postpone  or  prevent  the  adoption 
of  a  plan  of  non-intercourse,  and  in  order  to  effect  a  uni- 
form and  lenient  plan  in  case  non-intercourse  could  not  be 
prevented."^  Dickinson  advocated  a  congress,  elected  by 
assemblies  wherever  possible,  for  the  purpose  of  formulat- 
ing a  uniform  boycott  against  England  and  avoiding  the 
dreadful  necessity  of  war.^  Sam  Adams  rendered  lip- 
service  to  the  cause  of  a  congress,  but  strained  every  energy 
to  committing  the  continent  to  a  radical  program  before  the 
body  could  assemble.*  Silas  Deane  criticized  the  premature 
activity  of  Adams  and  favored  a  congress  as  a  preventive 
of  "  narrow^  partial  and  indigested  "  plans  of  action.^ 

On  the  other  hand.  Governor  Franklin  in  June  feared 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  485-486. 

' "  Massachusettensis  "  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Mch.  27,  1775. 

'Pa.  Journ.,  June  15,  1774;  also  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  i,  pp.  499-Soo. 

^Writings  (Gushing),  vol.  iii,  pp.  114-116,  125-127. 

^  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  129-130. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


395 


*'  the  Consequences  which  may  result  from  such  a  Con- 
gress as  is  now  intended  in  America,  chosen  by  the  Assem- 
bhes,  or  by  Committees  from  all  the  several  Counties,  in 
each  of  the  Provinces;"^  while,  conversely,  the  radical, 
Josiah  Ouincy,  warned  Dickinson  two  months  later  that : 
"  Corruption  (which  delay  gives  time  to  operate)  is  the  de- 
stroying angel  we  have  most  to  fear.  ...  I  fear  much  that 
timid  or  lukewarm  counsels  will  be  considered  by  our  Con- 
gress as  prudent  and  politic."  "  And  Governor  Gage,  of 
Massachusetts,  writing  at  almost  the  same  moment  as  Gov- 
ernor Franklin,  inclined  to  the  opinion  of  Quincy  when  he 
said :  "  I  believe  a  Congress,  of  some  sort,  may  be  ob- 
tained; but  when  or  how  it  will  be  composed  is  yet  at  a 
distance,  and  after  all.  Boston  may  get  little  more  than 
fair  words."  ^ 

The  original  idea  of  the  New  England  radicals  seems  to 
have  been  for  "  a  congress  of  the  Merchants,  by  deputies 
from  among  them  in  every  seaport  town,  .  .  .  with  power 
to  establish  a  plan  for  the  whole  .  .  ."  ■*  Paul  Revere, 
after  a  fortnight's  trip  through  the  commercial  provinces, 
reported  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  a  congress,  so  consti- 
tuted, in  order  to  place  a  restriction  on  the  trade  to  the 
West  Indies.^  When  the  widespread  demand  seemed  to 
call  for  an  assemblage  of  a  more  general  character,  the 
Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  suggested  that: 
"There  must  be  both  a  political  and  commercial  congress,"  ® 

^  I  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  464-465. 
^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  p.  725. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  451. 

*  Letter  of  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  to  Providence  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence.  May  21,  1774;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  x, 
pp.  796-798. 

*  Mass.  Spy,  June  2,  1774. 

^  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Mss.,  vol.  x,  pp.  796-798. 


396  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

This  quickly  proved  to  be  unfeasible;  and  the  Massachu- 
setts Spy  declared  on  June  i6,  1774:  "A  Politico-Mer- 
cantile Congress  seems  now  to  be  the  voice  of  all  the 
Colonies  from  Nova-Scotia  to  Georgia;  and  New  York  the 
place  of  meeting  proposed  by  private  letters :  However, 
our  generous  brethren  of  that  metropolis  are  pleased  to 
complement  Boston  with  the  appointment  both  of  time 
and  place;  which  invitation  will  undoubtedly  be  accepted 
with  grateful  alacrity."  On  the  very  next  day,  the  Massa- 
chusetts House  of  Representatives  acted  with  the  promised 
"  alacrity."  While  the  secretary  of  the  province  read  the 
governor's  proclamation  of  dissolution  to  a  curious  audi- 
ence on  the  wrong  side  of  the  locked  door,  the  house  chose 
delegates  to  the  Congress  and  announced  the  place  of  meet- 
ing to  be  Philadelphia  on  September  i.^  Already  on  June 
15  the  Rhode  Island  Assembly  had  appointed  delegates; 
and  in  the  subsequent  weeks  every  province  of  the  thirteen 
designated  representatives,  in  one  fashion  or  other,  except 
Georgia." 

What  was  to  be  the  program  of  the  Congress  when  it 
met  ?  The  answer  to  the  question  depended  upon  a  proper 
evaluation  of  a  number  of  factors,  principally  the  follow- 
ing :  the  instructions  given  to  the  members-elect  of  the  Con- 
gress; the  crystallization  of  public  opinion  in  the  period 
prior  to  the  assembling  of  that  body ;  the  character  and 
temper  of  the  members  and  of  the  interests  functioning 
through  them;  the  steeplechase  of  ultimatum  and  conces- 
sion which  was  certain  to  occur  after  the  Congress  had 
assembled. 

/Although  the  instructions  of  the  delegates  obviously  had 
a  bearing  on  the  action  of  Congress,  it  would  be  mislead- 
ing to  ascribe  to  these  papers  any  commanding  importance ; 

^  Mass.  Spy,  June  23,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  421-423. 
*  Vide  supra,  chapters  viii  and  ix,  passim. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


397 


for  the  instructions  rqjresented  not  so  much  what  the 
dominant  elements  in  a  community  really  wanted,  as  what 
they  dared  to  say  that  they  wanted.^^  These  instructions 
had  originated  in  divers  ways,  although  in  almost  every  in- 
stance they  had  been  issued  by  the  body  which  had  chosen 
the  delegates/  ^^he  keynote  of  all  instructions  was  the 
injunction  that  the  delegates  should  adopt  proper  measures 
to  extricate  the  colonies  from  their  difficulties  with  the 
mother  nation,  and  that  they  should  establish  American 
rights  and  liberties  upon  a  just  and  permanent  basis  and 
so  restore  harmony  and  union.  Some  difference  of  opinion 
was  apparent  concerning  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  colo- 
nial grievances  which  should  be  redressed.  About  half  the 
provinces  deemed  these  too  patent,  or  the  occasion  prema- 
ture, for  a  particular  definition  of  them  in  the  instructions. 
The  other  provinces  were  unanimous  in  naming  parlia- 
mentary taxation  of  the  colonies  as  a  grievance,  and  almost 
without  exception  they  included  the  punitive  acts  of  1774, 
particularly  the  Boston  Port  Act."  The  Pennsylvania  con- 
vention had  gone  so  far  as  to  suggest  the  maximum  con- 

^  In  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  the  lower  house  of 
the  legislatures  gave  the  instructions.  In  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  provincial  conven- 
tions were  responsible  for  the  instructions.  Both  kinds  of  bodies 
participated  in  South  Carolina  and  Pennsylvania.  In  the  province  of 
New  York,  the  delegates  were  uninstructed  in  the  technical  sense  of  the 
term,  but  a  majority  of  them  had  been  forced  to  announce  their  plat- 
form in  response  to  popular  pressure.  All  the  instructions  may  be 
found  in  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  Consult  index  under  name  of  the  prov- 
ince desired. 

*  Virginia,  Delaware  and  the  Pennsylvania  convention  added  the  re- 
vived statute  of  Henry  VIII  and  the  extension  of  the  powers  of  the 
admiralty  courts.  South  Carolina  included  the  "  unnecessary  restraints 
and  burthens  on  trade"  and  the  statutes  and  royal  instructions  which 
made  invidious  distinctions  between  subjects  in  Great  Britain  and  in 
America;  Delaware,  the  curtailing  of  manufacturing;  and  the  Pennsyl- 
vania convention,  the  quartering  of  troops. 


398  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

cessions  which  Congress  should  make  in  return  for  the 
favors  desired,  i.  e.,  the  settlement  of  an  annual  revenue 
on  the  king  and  the  reimbursement  of  the  East  India 
Company. 

,/fThe  widest  divergence  of  opinion  appeared  on  the  im- 
p(^tant  point  of  the  nature  of  the  opposition  which  should 
be  directed  against  Great  Britain.  Most  of  the  commercial 
provinces  instructed  their  delegates  to  adopt  "  proper  "  or 
"  prudent "  or  ''  lawful "  measures  without  specifying 
further  details. ^  New  Jersey  and  Delaware,  provinces 
largely  agricultural  in  their  economy,  were  the  only  ones 
of  the  group  to  recommend  a  P^an  of  non-importation  and 
non-exportation  to  Congress.  'In  contrast  to  the  commer- 
cial provinces,  three  of  the  four  planting  provinces  that 
took  action  instructed  their  delegates  for  a  non-importation 
and  non-exportation  with  Great  Britain.^ 

If  the  absence  of  such  instructions  in  the  northern 
provinces  suggested  the  dominance  of  the  business  motive 
in  that  section,  the  form  of  the  boycott  plan  proposed  in 
various  parts  of  the  South  revealed  the  presence  of  power- 
ful agricultural  interests  there.  The  instructions  to  the 
Maryland  delegates  carefully  specified  that  that  province 
would  not  withhold  the  exportation  of  tobacco  unless  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina  did  so  at  the  same  time.  By  the 
Virginia  instructions,  the  delegates  were  told  uncondition- 
ally that  non-exportation  must  not  become  operative  be- 

^  There  were  unimportant  exceptions.  The  New  York  delegates  had 
been  maneuvered  into  avowing  a  present  inclination  toward  a  non- 
importation regulation.  The  Pennsylvania  Assembly  had  refused  to 
give  detailed  instructions;  but  the  provincial  convention  had  recom- 
mended the  sending  of  petitions  as  a  first  resort,  and  had  intimated 
that  Pennsylvania  would,  under  no  circumstances,  go  further  than  a 
non-importation  and  non-exportation  with  Great  Britain,  unless  Parlia- 
ment should  adopt  further  measures  of  aggression. 

^  Md.,  Va.,  N.  C.     South  CaroHna  was  silent  on  this  point. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


399 


fore  August  lo,  1775,  because  that  date  would  "  avoid  the 
heavy  injury  that  would  arise  to  this  country  from  an 
earlier  adoption  of  the  non-exportation  plan  after  the 
people  have  already  applied  so  much  of  their  labour  to  the 
perfecting  of  the  present  [tobacco]  crop  .  .  ."  ^  Probably 
from  a  similar  motive,  the  North  Carolina  delegates  were 
instructed  to  delay  the  operation  of  non-exportation  until 
October  i,  1775,  if  possible.  Virginia  wished  the  non- 
importation to  become  effective  on  November  i,  1774; 
North  Carolina  preferred  Januar}'^  i,  1775.  The  instruc- 
tions of  the  South  Carolina  delegates  observed  a  discreet 
silence  as  to  the  adoption  of  a  boycott  plan;  but  the  rice 
planters  had  safeguarded  their  interests  by  inserting  a  pro- 
vision pledging  the  province  only  to  such  measures  of  the 
Congress  as  commanded  the  support  of  the  South  Carolina 
delegates  as  well  as  the  majority  of  Congress. 
^A  closer  scrutiny  of  the  several  sets  of  instructions 
would  only  serve  to  enforce  the  conclusion  that,  Calthough 
the  plantation  provinces  stood  rather  clearly  for  a  two- 
edged  plan  of  commercial  opposition,  the  instructions  of  no 
province  contemplated  a  comprehensive  and  skilfully  artic- 
ulated plan  such  as  the  Continental  Association  turned  out 
to^be"1  Every  province,  touching  on  the  matter,  specifically 
limited  the  proposed  suspension  of  trade  to  Great  Britain, 
except  Maryland  and  New  Jersey.  Only  Maryland  author- 
ized her  delegates  to  agree  to  "  any  restrictions  upon  ex- 
ports to  the  West  Indies  which  may  be  deemed  necessary 
by  a  majority  of  the  Colonies  at  the  general  Congress." 

'  This  instruction  provoked  a  writer  in  the  commercial  provinces  to 
query  whether  this  restraint  did  not  tend  to  render  Congress  totally 
ineffective,  inasmuch  as  every  province  had  an  equal  right  to  safeguard 
its  material  interests;  thus  Pennsylvania,  the  importation  of  cloth. 
New  York,  the  importation  of  hats  and  tea,  New  England,  the  im- 
portation of  flannels,  calicoes,  etc.  Pa.  Jouni.,  Sept.  28,  1774:  also 
4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  755-756. 


400 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


The  scope,  the  symmetry,  the  enforcement  provisions  of 
Ithe  Continental  Association  clearly  did  not  proceed  from 
(the  instructions  of  the  delegates?^ 

The  development  of  public  opinion  in  the  interval  be- 
tween the  giving  of  instructions  and  the  assembling  of 
Congress  marked  a  long  stride  in  advance  of  the  views  em- 
bodied in  the  instructions.  The  direction  of  the  gathering 
opinion  was  influenced,  to  some  degree,  by  correspondents 
in  London,  both  of  native  and  colonial  birth,  many  of 
whose  letters  appeared  in  the  colonial  press  and  all  of  whom 
argued  that  the  hard  times  then  prevailing  in  England 
made  some  form  of  trade  suspension  the  logical  mode  of 
opposition/  <^o  a  larger  degree,  the  public  mind  was  in- 
fluenced by  the  trenchant  articles  with  which  the  propa- 
gandists filled  the  newspapers^  As  one  newspaper  writer 
phrased  it :  "  The  Delegates  must  certainly  desire  to  know 
the  mind  of  the  country  in  general.  No  rational  man  will 
think  himself  so  well  acquainted  with  our  affairs  as  that  he 
cannot  have  a  more  full  and  better  view  of  them."  The 
questions  which  would  confront  Congress,  the  same  writer 
declared,  were  chiefly  the  following:  In  what  manner  and 
in  what  spirit  shall  we  make  our  application  to  Great  Brit- 
ain? "  Shall  we  stop  importation  only,  or  shall  we  cease 
exportation  also?  Shall  this  extend  only  to  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  or  shall  it  comprehend  the  West  India  Islands? 
At  what  time  shall  this  cessation  begin?  Shall  we  stop 
trade  till  we  obtain  what  we  think  reasonable  and  which 
shall  secure  us  for  time  to  come ;  or  shall  it  be  only  till  we 
obtain  relief  in  those  particulars  which  now  oppress  us? 
Shall  we  first  apply  for  relief  and  wait  for  an  answer  be- 

^E.  g.,  vide  letters  in  Pa.  Gas.,  May  i8,  June  i,  Aug.  lo,  177A\ 
N.  H.  Gas.,  May  26,  1775;  Mass.  Spy,  May  12,  1774.  Vide  also  Dr. 
Franklin's  letters  to  Gushing,  Thomson,  Timothy  and  others  in  his 
Writings   (Smyth),  vol.  vi,   pp.  238-244,  249-251,   303-311;   vol.   x,   pp. 

274-275. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION  40I 

fore  we  stop  trade,  or  shall  we  stop  trade  while  we  are 
making  application?"  In  what  manner  ought  we  to  offer 
to  bear  our  proper  share  of  the  public  expenses  ?  Shall  we 
offer  to  pay  for  the  tea  that  was  destroyed  ?  ^ 

Press  discussion  occupied  itself  very  largely  with  the 
problems  of  commercial  warfare  here  presented.  "A  Dis- 
tressed Bostonian  "  noted  a  general  disposition  to  oppose 
the  oppressive  measures  of  the  home  government;  but,  he 
added  acutely :  "  We  are  variously  affected,  and  as  each 
feels  himself  more  or  less  distres'd  he  is  proportionately 
warm  or  cool  in  the  opposition."  "  A  few  typical  extracts 
will  indicate  the  trend  of  newspaper  discussion.  "A  Letter 
from  a  Virginian  to  the  Members  of  the  Congress  "  en- 
treated the  delegates  to  avoid  all  forms  of  the  boycott,  re- 
minding them  that  the  resources  of  the  mother  country 
were  infinite,  and  asking:  "  Shall  we  punish  ourselves,  like 
froward  Children,  who  refuse  to  eat  when  they  are  hungry, 
that  they  may  vex  their  indulgent  Mothers  ?  .  .  .  We  may 
teize  the  Mother  Country,  we  cannot  ruin  her."  '  "A  Citi- 
zen of  Philadelphia  "  took  a  slightly  more  advanced  view. 

^N,  Y.  Jotirfu,  Aug.  4,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  634-637. 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Sept.  5,  1774.  A  writer  in  the  Pa.  Journ.,  Sept.  28, 
1774,  expanded  the  same  thought  in  these  words:  "The  farmer,  who 
insists  that  the  dry  goods  merchant  shall  cease  to  import,  though  the 
measure  should  even  deprive  him  of  bread;  and  yet,  through  fear 
of  some  frivolous  loss  to  himself,  very  wisely  protests  against  non- 
exportation,  certainly  merits  the  utmost  contempt.  Nor  does  the 
farmer,  in  this  case,  stand  alone.  The  miller  lays  claim  to  public 
spirit ;  talks  loudly  for  liberty ;  and  also  insists  upon  a  non-importation ; 
and  in  order  to  enforce  the  scheme  upon  the  merchant,  will  readily 
agree  to  a  general  non-consumption;  but  no  sooner  is  non-exportation 
sounded  in  his  ear,  than  his  mighty  public  spirit,  like  Milton's  devils 
at  their  Pandemonium  consultation  is  instantly  dwarfed.  '  My  interest, 
sir!  I  cannot  part  with  that!  Alas!  if  a  general  non-exportation  takes 
place,  what  shall  I  do  with  my  mill  ? ' " 

'iV.  Y.  Gas.,  Aug.  22,  1774. 


402 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


He  proclaimed  himself  in  favor  of  a  general  non-importa- 
tion with  England;  but  he  roundly  condemned  a  non- 
exportation  as  a  weapon  which  would  inflict  "  a  more 
deadly  wound  "  on  America  than  on  England,  and  he  op- 
posed a  suspension  of  trade  with  the  West  Indies  as  a  pun- 
ishment to  a  people  who  were  innocent  of  wrong-doing/ 
i*  Juba "  addressed  himself  to  "  The  honourable  Dele- 
gates," who  were  soon  to  convene  in  Congress,  and  advo- 
cated a  non-importation  and  non-exportation  agreement 
which  included  Great  Britain,  Ireland  and  the  West  Indies 
in  its  operation.  "  I  know  many  objections  to  a  plan  of 
this  kind  will  be  started  by  self-interested  men,"  he  de- 
clared, "  but  is  this  a  time  for  us  to  think  of  accumulating 
fortunes,  or  even  adding  to  our  estates  ?"  ^ 

A  comprehensive  plan  of  trade  suspension,  such  as  was 
advocated  by  "Juba,"  was  urged  on  the  colonists  by  many 
American  sympathizers  in  Great  Britain,"  and  received  the 
widest  newspaper  support  in  the  colonies,  although  it  had 
received  no  sanctioiijn  any  of  the  instructions  to  members- 
elect  of  Congress,  j  The  realization  dawned  upon  the  rad- 
ical writers  that  the  coercive  operation  of  the  measures 
adopted  should  be  speedy  and  far-reaching,  notwithstanding 
the  severe  blow  to  colonial  trading  interests  and  the  per- 
sonal guiltlessness  of  the  populations  affected.  By  with- 
drawing American  exports  from  Great  Britain,  it  was  esti- 
mated that  the  public  revenue  would  be  reduced  nearly  one 
million  pounds  sterling  per  annum,  about  half  of  which 
sum  arose  from  the  single  article  of  tobacco.*  Jjndeed,  "the 

^ Pa.  Packet,  June  20,  2y,  iTJA',  also  N.  Y.  Gaz.,  June  27,  July  4. 

^.V.  F.  Gazetteer,  Sept.  2,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  754-/55- 

^  E.  g.,  vide  anonymous  letters  printed  in  Pa.  Journ.,  Sept.  14,  21, 
1774;  Pa.  Gaz.,  Sept.  21;  Mass.  Spy,  June  2;  Md.  Gaz.,  May  26. 

*  '■  To  the  People  of  America"  (Boston,  Sept.,  1774),  in  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  i,  pp.  756-759.     Vide  also  Mass.  Spy,  Mch.  23,  1775. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION  403 

shipping,  manufactures  and  revenue  [of  England]  depend 
so  much  on  the  Tobacco  and  CaroHna  Colonies  that  they 
alone,  by  stopping  their  exports,  would  force  redress."  ^ 
The  want  of  American  naval  stores,  particularly  pitch,  tar 
and  turpentine,  would  also  be  felt  in  England  immediately." 
By  stopping  the  exportation  of  colonial  flaxseed  to  Ireland, 
the  linen  manufacturers  of  England  would  be  deprived  of 
their  raw  material  and  more  than  three  hundred  thousand 
employees  thrown  out  of  work.^ 

The  design  of  stopping  all  trade  with  the  West  Indies 
was  even  a  bolder  conception,  because  of  the  basic  impor- 
tance of  that  branch  of  commerce  to  American  business 
prosperity.  The  plan  derived  its  inspiration  from  the  fact 
that  more  than  seventy  members  of  Parliament  owned 
plantations  in  the  West  Indies  and  they  thus  exposed  an 
Achilles-heel  to  the  darts  of  the  Americans.  "  Suspending 
our  trade  with  the  West  Indies,"  declared  one  writer,  "  will 
ruin  every  plantation  there.  They  can  neither  feed  their 
negroes  without  our  corn  nor  save  their  crops  without  our 
lumber.  A  stoppage  of  North  American  supplies  will  bring 
on  a  famine  and  scarcity  too  ruinous  to  be  risked  without 
the  most  stupid  madness."  ■*  "  If  the  West  India  Planters, 
who  have  great  influence  in  Parliament,"  said  another, 
"  are  content  to  see  their  estates  ruined,  and  their  slaves 
perish,  if  they  will  quietly  resign  these  their  possessions, 
let  it  be,  and  let  the  crime  be  added  to  the  enormous  account 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  237-238. 

*  Unsigned  letter  (probably  of  Dr.  Franklin)  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post- 
Boy,  Oct.  24,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  701-702. 

"  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  756-759. 

*  "  To  the  People  of  America,"  ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  7S6-759-  Vide  also 
letter  to  Bos.  Com.  Cor.,  ibid.,  p.  347;  '"Queries,"  ibid.,  p.  755;  "Camillus" 
in  N.  H.  Gas.,  Aug.  5,  1774;  "  Plain  Dealer"  in  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  July  21; 
"A  Country  Man  "  in  ibid.,  Dec.  15. 


404 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


of  the  British  Parliament."  ^  "  There  will  be  opposers 
to  this  scheme  even  among  our  friends  {self-interest  is 
strong),"  he  added.  "  I  know  it  requires  a  great  sacrifice 
to  stop  trade  to  the  West  Indies.  .  .  .  But  /  see  no  justice 
that  the  merchant  trading  to  Great  Britain  should  he  the 
only  sufferer,  the  West-India  merchant  ought  to  suffer  also, 
and  especially  when  his  sufferings  will  absolutely  work  the 
most  forceably."  A  third  writer  recalled  a  long-rankling 
grievance  of  the  Americans  against  the  West  India  plant- 
ing element.  No  less  than  seventy-four  members  of  Par- 
liament "  are  West  India  planters  and  proprietors,"  he  de- 
clared. "And  I  am  also  credibly  informed  that  they  were 
the  means  of  fomenting  these  difficulties  by  first  getting  [in 
1764]  a  duty  laid  on  all  sugars,  molasses,  coffee,  &c.,  not 
imported  from  the  English  West-India  Islands;  it  will 
therefore  be  necessary  to  shew  them  of  how  much  impor- 
tance we  are,  by  distressing  them  for  want  of  our  trade."  ^ 
An  animated  discussion  occurred  over  the  question 
whether  remittances  should  be  withheld  from  the  British 
merchants  as  well  as  trade  connections.  If  we  liquidate 
our  annual  indebtedness  of  £3,000,000  sterling  as  usual, 
queried  "A  Plain  Dealer,"  will  the  British  merchants  not 
be  enabled  thereby  to  employ  the  manufacturers  for  one 
whole  )^ear  after  importation  has  ceased,  a  period  during 
which  our  measures  will  be  felt  only  by  ourselves  ?  ^  While 
conceding  the  theoretical  injustice  involved  in  a  refusal  to 
pay  debts,  a  Philadelphia  writer  contended  that  the  case 
under  consideration  was  an  exception  to  the  rule;  for,  if 
two  neighbors  shared  a  lifelong  friendship  and  one  of  them 
took  it  into  his  head  to  kidnap  and  enslave  the  child  of  the 

^  "A  Distressed  Bostonian,"  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Sept.  5,  1774. 
^  Mass.  Spy,  Aug.  25,  1774,  quoting  from  Co)in.  Gas. 
*  N.  Y.  Journ.,  July  21,  1774. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


405 


Other  at  a  time  when  the  other  owed  him  money,  would  it 
be  unjust  for  the  debtor  to  withhold  pa3mient  until  the 
child  was  returned?  He  concluded  that,  though  Britain 
had  a  demand  of  debt  against  the  colonists,  the  Americans 
had  a  demand  of  a  different  nature,  but  superior  in  value, 
against  her ;  and  that  when  Britain  granted  "  liberty,  peace 
and  a  free  trade."  the  colonists  should  repay  their  debts."  * 
The  opponents  of  non-remittance  held  that  it  was  a  dis- 
honorable expedient  and  not  necessary  under  the  circum- 
stances. Indeed,  a  "  Citizen  of  Philadelphia "  believed 
that,  if  the  colonists  should  suspend  the  payment  of  their 
debts,  the  British  merchants  would  retaliate  and  influence 
Parliament  to  stop  all  trade  connections  between  American 
ports  and  Europe  in  order  to  prevent  trade  with  foreign 
nations  from  being  carried  on  on  capital  properly  theirs.^ 
i^^\^  John  xA.dams  and  his  brother  delegates  of  Massachu- 
setts traveled  the  irksome  distance  from  Boston  to  the 
meeting-place  of  the  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia 
in  the  latter  weeks  of  August,  they  received  first-hand  evi- 
dence of  the  accelerated  progress  of  popular  sentiment 
toward  extreme  measures  of  boycott,  and  learned  better 
than  through  correspondence  the  character  of  the  opposi- 
tion elements  in  other  provinces. ^,\tJpon  his  arrival  at  Hart- 
ford, Adams  had  a  talk  with  Silas  Deane  and  his  stej>sons 
who  had  come  over  from  AVethersfield  to  greet  the  Massa- 
chusetts delegates ;  and  though  these  men  were  "  largely  in 
trade,"  they  announced  that  they  were  "  willing  to  re- 
nounce all  their  trade,"  Deane  declaring  that  the  resolu- 
tions of  Congress  would  be  regarded  in  Connecticut  as 
"  the  laws   of  the   Medes   and   Persians."  ^     Stopping   ar 

^  Pa.  Journ.,  Sept.  28,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  811-814. 
'"A    Few    Political    Reflections."    Pa.    Packet,    June    27,    1774;    also 
N.  Y.  Gas.,  July  4- 
'Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  341. 


4o6 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Middletown,  the  members  of  the  local  committee  of  corres- 
pondence and  many  other  persons  assured  the  delegates 
that  "  they  would  abide  by  whatever  should  be  determined 
on,  even  to  a  total  stoppage  of  trade  to  Europe  and  the 
West  Indies."  ^  Reaching  New  Haven,  a  chief  trading 
town  of  Connecticut,  the  chorus  of  approval  was  marred 
by  a  false  note  or  two.  In  one  discussion  some  serious 
doubts  were  cast  upon  the  coercive  effect  of  a  total  non- 
exportation  to  the  West  Indies,  even  if  well  executed; 
while  from  another  source  Adams  was  informed  that  a 
boycott  agreement  would  serve  no  good  purpose  because 
Congress  would  lack  power  to  enforce  it.  He  learned  from 
the  tavern  keeper  that  the  fine  parade  which  had  greeted 
the  delegates  seven  miles  from  the  city  on  their  arrival  had 
been  contrived  at  the  last  moment  by  the  moderates  "  in 
order  to  divert  the  populace  from  erecting  a  liberty  pole, 
&c."  "^ 

Arriving  in  due  time  in  New  York  city,  the  delegates 
lingered  nearly  a  week,  sightseeing  and  "  breakfasting, 
dining,  drinking  coffee,  &c.,"  amidst  "  all  the  opulence  and 
splendor"  of  that  city.  Much  of  this  time  was  spent  in 
the  company  of  McDougall,  John  Morin  Scott,  Isaac  Sears 
and  other  radicals,  from  whom  Adams  gained  much  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  the  local  political  situation.  McDou- 
gall warned  the  Massachusetts  delegates  to  moderate  their 
language  in  order  not  to  frighten  the  timorous  elements 
there  that  had  combined,  from  various  motives,  in  support 
of  the  Congress.^     While  the  visiting  delegates  were  yet  in 

1  Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  34^- 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  344. 

*  These  groups,  McDougall  reported,  were  chiefly  the  following:  those 
men  who  had  been  induced  to  join  the  movement  by  assurances  that 
commercial  coercion  would  secure  relief  without  any  danger  of  civil 
commotions;  those  who  were  fearful  "lest  the  levelling  spirit  of  the 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION  407 

the  city,  the  "  Fifty-One  "  held  a  session  to  discuss  the 
business  of  the  approaching  Congress  for  the  benefit  of  the 
New  York  delegates.  Three  of  the  latter  attended;  and  a 
very  clear  intimation  was  given  that  the  best  course  would 
be  for  Congress  to  recommend  to  the  Bostonians  to  reim- 
burse the  East  India  Company  and  that  America  should 
then  return  to  a  non-importation  of  dutied  goods;  but 
should  they  be  reduced  to  the  "  last  sad  alternative  of  en- 
tering into  a  non-importation  agreement,"  then  it  should 
not  be  a  partial  one  as  before,  but  should  include  every 
European  commodity  from  all  parts  of  the  world/ 
Whether  or  not  this  measured  advice  reached  the  ears  of 
John  Adams  he  does  not  record  in  his  diary ;  and  he  prob- 
ably lost  his  best  opportunity  of  hearing  of  it  a  few  nights 
later  when  the  "  Fifty-One "  dined  the  Massachusetts 
delegates  with  "  a  profusion  of  rich  dishes,  &c.,  &c.,"  and 
Adams  spent  the  evening  talking  shop  with  James  Duane, 
the  lawyer  of  the  "  sly,  surveying  eye." 

When  the  Massachusetts  delegation  rode  into  Philadel- 
phia on  Monday,  August  29,  "dirty,  dusty,  and  fatigued," 
they  found  a  score  or  more  of  the  delegates  already  gath- 
ered in  the  city.  The  few  days  intervening  before  the  open- 
ing of  Congress  were  spent  by  the  waiting  delegates  in 
meeting  and  appraising  each  other  and  in  comparing  notes 
as  to  recent  political  developments  in  various  parts  of 
America.^  ^)f  the  fifty-six  delegates  who  eventually  ap- 

New  England  Colonies  should  propagate  itself  into  New  York;"  those 
who  entertained  "Episcopalian  prejudices"  against  New  England; 
"  merchants  largely  concerned  in  navigation,  and  therefore  afraid  of 
non-importation,  non-consumption,  and  non-exportation  agreements;" 
and  those  who  looked  to  the  government  for  favors.  Adams.  J.,  Works 
(Adams),  vol.  ii,  pp.  345-355- 

'AT.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Sept.  2,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  324  n. 

2  Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  pp.  357-364;  N.  Y.  Hist.  Sac. 
Colls.,  vol.  xix,  pp.  12-19. 


.v-'\       kaJ^  ^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

,.A  .Y  ^ared  from  the  twelve  provinces,  most  of  the  men  met 
W^  for  the  first  time/  A  large  proportion  of  them  had  taken 
active  part  in  the  popular  house  of  the  provincial  legisla- 
tures ;  ^  six  of  them  had  served  in  the  Stamp  Act  Congress ; 
practically  all  of  them  were  members  of  committees  of  cor- 
respondence. All  of  them  were  of  American  nativity;  and 
they  must  have  felt  a  responsibility  almost  personal  for  the 
critical  situation  in  which  America  found  herself.  As  lead- 
ers of  local  movements  for  larger  colonial  rights  and  ex- 
emptions in  the  preceding  years,  their  names  were,  for  the 
most  part,  well  known  to  each  other.  Their  present  inten- 
tions, however,  were  a  matter  for  conjecture  and  appre- 
hension. 

Friends  and  foes  of  the  Congress  alike  appreciated  the 
difficulties  of  the  situation.  "An  assembly  like  this,"  wrote 
the  Connecticut  delegates,  "  though  it  consists  of  less  than 
sixty  members,  yet,  coming  from  remote  Colonies,  each  of 
which  has  some  modes  of  transacting  public  business  pecu- 
liar to  itself, — some  particular  Provincial  rights  and  inter- 
ests to  guard  and  secure,  must  take  some  time  to  become 

^  John  Dickinson,  who  had  earlier  been  excluded  from  election 
through  the  efforts  of  Galloway,  took  his  seat  on  October  17.  Prior 
to  this  time,  however,  Dickinson  was  in  close  touch  with  the  delegates 
in  small  dinner-groups  and  in  other  informal  ways;  e.  g.,  vide  Adams, 
J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  pp.  360,  363,  379,  381,  382,  2>^,  297 ■  James 
Bowdoin,  of  Massachusetts,  had  refused  his  election  at  the  hands  of 
the  Assembly,  because  his  relatives  thought  his  great  fortune  ought 
not  to  be  hazarded.  Hazelton,  Decl.  of  Inde.,  p.  9;  Hibernian  Chronicle 
(London),  October  27,  1774.  WilHam  Samuel  Johnson,  of  Connecticut, 
had  declined  his  appointment  on  the  ground  of  an  important  law  case 
which  required  his  attendance  at  Albany,  an  excuse  which  produced 
no  end  of  skeptical  comment.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  895;  Conn.  Cour., 
Aug.  2,  1774;  Journals  Cont.  Cong.  (L.  C.  Edition),  vol.  i,  p.  18  n. 
Wolcott  and  Law,  of  the  same  province,  had  also  declined,  pleading 
poor  health. 

'Forty  of  them  had  served  in  provincial  legislatures,  ten  or  more 
of  them  in  the  speakership. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


409 


SO  acquainted  with  each  one's  situations  and  connections,  as 
to  be  able  to  give  an  united  assent  to  the  ways  and  means 
proposed  for  effecting  what  all  are  ardently  desirous  of 
.  .  .  Every  one  must  be  heard  even  on  those  points  or  sub- 
jects which  in  themselves  are  not  of  the  last  importance; 
and  indeed,  it  often  happens  that  what  is  of  little  or  no 
consequence  to  one  Colony  is  of  the  last  to  another."  ^  In 
this  Congress,  affirmed  John  Adams,  "  is  a  diversity  of  re- 
ligions, educations,  manners,  interests,  such  as  it  would 
se^n  impossible  to  unite  in  one  plan  of  conduct."  ^ 
j^^Tho.  delegates  from  the  plantation  provinces  were,  as  we 
have  seen,  for  the  most  part  instructed  to  push  for  a  limited 
non-importation  and  non-exportation  agreement;  and  the 
rising  tide  of  radical  feeling  in  the  North,  as  indicated  in 
the  newspapers,  gave  promise  that  many  delegates  from 
that  section  would  also  join  in  the  movemenfS.  Indeed, fcon- 
sidering  that  only  eleven  delegates  in  the  whole  Congress 
_were  merchants  and  these,  for  the  most  part,  men  more 
addicted  to  politics  than  to  trade,  some  plan  of  non-impor- 
tation and  non-exportation  was  the  inevitable  outcome  of 
the  Congress.  The  agricultural  interests  clearly  possessed.^.  ^ 
the  controlling  influejticeTlbut  it  is  impossible  to  give  precise 
figures,   for  one-half  of  the  membership  were  content  to 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  854-855. 

'Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ix,  pp.  346-348.  Vide  also  Ward's 
view,  in  Staples,  R.  I.  in  Cont.  Cong.,  pp.  16-17.  A  comment  of  an 
unfriendly  observer  (probably  William  Kelly,  the  New  York  merchant) 
is  not  without  significance  in  this  connection.  After  predicting  that 
the  Congress  would  end  in  confusion,  he  wrote:  "My  Reasons  for 
thinking  so  are,  that  Men,  1500  Miles  asunder,  have  very  different 
Interests ;  that  there  will  be  near  a  Hundred  Deputies  assembled,  most 
of  which  being  Merchants,  Shopkeepers,  and  Attornies,  the  latter  of 
them  will  certainly  rule,  for  no  Men  are  so  true  to  their  own  Inter- 
est as  Lawyers,  for  they  will  not  stick  at  any  Thing  in  prosecuting 
their  Interest."  He  proposed  that  the  ministry  should  bribe  some  of 
the  leading  lawyers!  London  Gazetteer,  Sept.  28,  1774;  also  S.  C_ 
Gas..  Dec.  5. 


4IO 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


classify  themselves  as  lawyers  although  frequently  their  in- 
comes were  derived  in  large  part,  if  not  chiefly,  from  agri- 
cultural holdings/  The  ultimate  conscious  object  of  the 
boycotters  in  Congress  was  not  merely  the  repeal  of  the 
punitive  acts  of  1774  but  the  goal  that  had  formerly  been 
so  dear  to  the  merchant  <4ass — a  return  to  the  conditions 
of  the  years  before  i763y/vVithin  the  ranks  of  this  group 
there  was  a  clear  understanding  of  the  economic  interests 
endangered  by  a  suspension  of  trade  and  a  willingness,  on 
the  part  of  many  of  them,  to  shift  tl\e  anticipated  losses  on 
their  brethren  in  the  other  provinceslA 

fihe  chief  danger  to  the  adoption  of  a  plan  of  continental 
non-intercourse  came  from  a  determined  and  plausible 
group  of  moderates,  led  by. Joseph  Galloway,  who  insisted 
that  the  only  permanent  relief  was  to  be  found  in  an  en- 
lightened definition  of  imperial  relations  and  colonial  liber- 
ties in  the  form  of  a  plan  of  union.  This  group  saw  in 
commercial  coercion  only  a  source  of  irritation  to  Great 
Britain,  and  wagered  their  faith  on  memorializing  and 
petitioning!^  Galloway  averred,  somewhat  unjustly,  that 
the  men  who  favored  his  plan  of  union  "  were  men  of  loyal 
principles,  and  possessed  of  the  greatest  fortunes  in  Amer- 
ica; the  other  were  congregational  and  presbyterian  repub- 
licans, or  men  of  bankrupt  fortunes,  overwhelmed  in  debt 
to  the  British  merchants."  ^ 

The  first  three  weeks  of  the  meeting  of  the  Continental 
Congress  might  furnish  an  object-lesson  for  the  skilled  par- 
liamentarian of  any  age.^    "  We  [Massachusetts  delegates] 

'  E.  g.,  Sullivan  of  N.  H.,  Dickinson  of  Pa.,  Henry  of  Va.  and  the 
Rutledges  of  S.  C. 

'  Historical  and  Political  Reflections  on  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
American  Rebellion  (London,  1780),  pp.  66-67. 

'The  sources  of  information  for  the  proceedings  of  the  First  Conti- 
nental Congress  are  meager,  however.  They  are  contained  in :  Journals 
of  the  Continental  Congress  (L.  C.  Edition),  vol.  i;  John  Adams's  notes, 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


411 


have  had  numberless  prejudices  to  remove  here,"  wrote 
John  Adams  on  September  2y.  "  We  have  been  obHged  to 
act  with  great  dehcacy  and  caution.  We  have  been  obHged 
to  keep  ourselves  out  of  sight,  and  to  feel  pulses  and  sound 
the  depths;  to  insinuate  our  sentiments,  designs,  and  de- 
sires, by  means  of  other  persons;  sometimes  of  one  Prov- 
ince, and  sometimes  of  another."  ^  Sam  Adams  found 
himself  in  his  element.  "  He  eats  little,  drinks  little,  sleeps 
little,  thinks  much  and  is  most  decisive  and  indefatigable  in 
the  pursuit  of  his  objects,"  declared  the  organizing  spirit  of 
th^  opposite  party.^ 

-.^he  first  test  of  strength  between  the  groups  came  on  the 
very  first  day  of  meeting,  Monday,  September  5,  when 
Congress  refused  the  invitation,  tendered  by  Galloway,  to 
meet  in  the  State  House  and,  in  face  of  negative  votes  from 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  resolved  to  hold  their  sessions 
in  Carpenters'  Hall,  a  decision  naturally ."  highly  agreeable 
to  the  mechanics  and  citizens  in  general.^  Congress  then 
proceeded  to  the  unanimous  election  of  Charles  Thomson 
as  secretary,  much  to  the  surprise  of  Galloway  who  deemed 
him  "  one  of  the  most  violent  Sons  of  Liberty  (so  called) 
in  America,"  and  contrary  to  the  expressed  desires  of  Jay 
and  Duane.*     Both  measures,  according  to  Galloway,  had 

Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  pp.  365-402;  Samuel  Ward's  diary,  in  Mag. 
Am.  Hisi.,  vol.  i,  438-442,  503-506,  549-561 ;  certain  pamphlets  of  Joseph 
Galloway;  the  correspondence  of  the  members;  and  a  few  contempor- 
ary pamphlets  and  newspaper  articles.  On  the  whole,  the  pledge  of 
secrecy  was  excellently  observed. 

^  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  382  n.  Vide  also  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  391  n. ; 
vol.  ix,  pp.  342-346. 

^  Galloway,  Reflections,  pp.  66-67. 

^Conn.  Hist.  Sac.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  p.  172;  Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams), 
vol.  ii,  p.  365. 

*  I  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x.  pp.  477-478;  Adams,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii, 
p.  365.  Adams  dubbed  Thomson  "  the  Sam  Adams  of  Philadelphia." 
Ibid.,  p.  358. 


412 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


been  '*  privately  settled  by  an  Interest  made  out  of  Doors." 
Peyton  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  late  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  was  chosen  president  without  opposition. 

For  the  next  few  weeks  the  proceedings  assumed  an  ap- 
pearance of  "  flattering  tranquillity,"  as  Galloway  put  it. 
The  radicals  were  biding  their  time;  ^  and  meanwhile  the 
members  established  a  rule  of_secrecy  (except  upon  occa- 
sion when  Congress  should  direct  otherwise),  and /Agreed 
that  the  delegates  ot''each--pr£ivince  should  cast  one  vote 
collectively/)  Both  regulations  later  served  the  purposes  of 
the  radicals  by  giving  to  the  proceedings  a  false  appearance 
of  unanimity.  I^he  unit  rule  made  it  possible  to  publish 
resolutions  as  havmg  passed  unanimously,  even  when  large 
minorities  in  various  delegations,  amounting  sometimes  to 
one-third  of_the  total  membership  of  Congress,  were  in 
the  negative^cl 

The  first  committee  appointed  by  the  Continental  Congress 
was  one  to  state  the  rights  and  grievances  of  the  colonies 
I  and  propose  the  best  means  of  obtaining  redress;  and  on 
1  the  same  day  another  committee  was  named  "  to  examine 
\  and  report  the  several  Statutes  which  affect  the  Trade  and 
I  Manufactures  of  the  Colonies."  The  second  committee 
I  submitted  its  report  ten  days  later,  when  it  was  thought 
proper  that  the  report  should  be  referred  to  the  former 
committee  for  further  consideration  and  action.^  But  be- 
fore the  committee  on  rights  and  redress  had  submitted  its 
report,  Congress  had  already  taken  the  definite  steps  which 
established  th^jjolicy  of  trade  coercion. 

•'The  radicals  jthrew  off  their  mask  on  September  17,  when 
theyf  carried  through  a  vote  endorsing}  a  set  of  resolutions 

Galloway,  Reflections,  pp.  66-67;  Cooper,  JVhat  Think  Ye  of  Con- 
gress Now?  (New  York,  1775),  p.  13. 

-Galloway,  Examination  (London,  1780),  p.  61. 
■*  Journals  Cont.  Cong.  (L.  C.  Edition),  vol.  i,  pp.  25-29,  40-41,  62-73. 
All  later  references  to  the  Journals  are  to  this  edition. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


413 


adopted  by  a  convention  of  Suffolk  County  in  Massachu- 
setts. This  step  was,  according  to  Galloway,  a  "  complete 
declaration  of  war  "  on  the  part  of  the  "  republicans."  ^ 
/The  "  Suffojk  Resolves "  rejected  the  recent  legislation 
against  Massachusetts  as  unconstitutional  and  void,  and 
called  for  a  civil  government  to  be  organized  by  the  people 
and  for  the  establishment  of  a  militia  for  defensive  pur- 
poses. Furthermore,  the  fourteenth  resolve  declared  that, 
as  a  measure  for  obtaining  redress,  the  people  of  Suffolk 
County  (and  the  same  action  was  recommended  to  the 
other  counties)  would  "  withhold  all  commercial  inter- 
course with  Great  Britain,  Ireland  and  the  West  Indies  ^' 
and  enter  into  a  non-consumption  of  British  and  East  India., 
wares,  subject  to  such  alterations  as  Congress  might  make.y 
By  endorsing  these  resolutions.  Congress,  among  other 
things,  committed  itself  to  the  principle  of  an  extensive  plan 
of  jcommercial  opposition. 

^^;^^  a  matter  of  practical  strategy,  however,  it  was  deemed 
safer  to  induce  the  members  to  agree  to  several  separate 
propositions  regarding  trade  suspension  before  uniting  the 
parts  into  a  single  comprehensive  whole.  VFirst  was  brought 
up  the  proposal  of  a  non-importation  with  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  the  mildest  kind  of  commercial  warfare  and 
therefore  the  most  widely  acceptable  of  any.  On  Thursday, 
September  22,  Congress  paved  the  way  for  its  own  action 
by  ordering  the  publication  throughout  the  continent  of  an 
official  request  that  the  merchants  should  send  no  more 
orders  to  Great  Britain  and  should  suspend  the  execution 
of  orders  already  given,  until  the  further  sense  of  Con 
gress  should  be  signified.^ 

^  Galloway,  Reflections,  pp.  66-67. 

^Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  31-39. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  41.  Among  other  newspapers,  this  resolution  appeared 
in  the  Pa.  Packet,  Sept.  26,  1774;  Md.  Gas.,  Sept.  29;  Rind's  (Pinkney) 
Va.  Gaz.,  Sept.  29;  S.  C.  Gas.,  Oct.  10;  Mass.  Spy,  Oct.  13. 


414 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Parts  of  three  days  were  given  over  by  Congress  to  a 
consideration  of  the  exact  form  of  the  non-importation.^ 
The  original  motion  for  a  non-importation  with  the  British 
Isles  was  made  by  Richard  Henry  Lee.  Chase  of  Mary- 
land, an  impetuous  radical  during  these  years  of  his  life, 
spoke  in  opposition  to  non-importation  as  an  insufficient 
measure,  and  proposed  instead  the  cessation  of  exportation 
and  the  withholding  of  remittances.  But  Chase's  plan  ap- 
parently had  a  single  supporter.  Lynch  of  South  Carolina. 
The  chief  question  at  issue  was  as  to  the  time  at  which 
Lee's  motion  would  become  operative.  Cushing,  a  mer- 
chant from  the  blockaded  port  of  Boston,  favored  an  im- 
mediate non-importation  and  non-consumption.  Most 
speakers  thought  otherwise.  Mifflin  of  Pennsylvania  be- 
lieved that  the  first  of  November  would  be  sufficiently  late 
to  allow  for  the  arrival  of  orders  already  sent  to  Great 
Britain  in  April  and  May,  and  he  held  that  orders  given 
after  that  date  had  been  dishonestly  given  to  defeat  the 
anticipated  non-importation,  Gadsden  of  South  Carolina 
likewise  argued  for  the  first  of  November.  It  would  ap- 
pear that  there  were  a  number  who  strenuously  favored  a 
much  longer  postponement;  and  Patrick  Henry  therefore 
moved,  by  way  of  compromise,  that  December  be  inserted 
instead  of  November,  remarking :  "  We  don't  mean  to  hurt 
even  our  rascals,  if  we  have  any."  The  non-importation 
resolution,  as  adopted  by  Congress  on  September  27,  thus 
fixed  December  i  as  the  date  after  which  no  goods  should 
be  imported,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland;  and  as  a  warning  to  stubborn  importers,  it  was 
resolved  that  goods  imported  contrary  to  this  resolution 
should  not  be  purchas^  or  used. 
I  On  the  next  day,<fGalloway  formally  presented  to  Con- 

'Sept.  24.  26,  27;  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  42-43.     Notes  on  the  discussion 
are  in  Adams,  J,,  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  382-3S6. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


415 


gress  the  plan  of  union,  which  constituted  the  platform  of 
the  moderates;  and  he  solemnly  warned  the  body  against 
non-exportation,  as  an  illegal  measure  which  would  bring 
British  warships  and  troops  down  upon  American  ports. 
Galloway's  extremely  reasonable  proposal  received  warm 
support — from  Jay  and  Duane  of  New  York,  from  Ed- 
ward Rutledge  of  South  Carolina,  and  in  general  from  the 
members  of  fortune  and  property/  In  spite  of  all  the 
efforts  of  the  radicals,  the  plan  was  entered  in  the  minutes 
by  a  vote  of  six  provinces  to  five;  but,  notwithstanding 
this  temporary  success,  the  moderates  were  never  thereafter 
able  to  secure  consideration  for  the  plan.  The  zeal  of  the 
radicals  in  later  expunging  from  the  record  all  traces  of 
this  proceeding  throws  an  interesting  sidelight  on  their 
methods.\ 

The  tmie  of  Congress  was  now  devoted,  for  a  consider- 
able part  of  three  days,  to  debates  over  the  adoption  of  a 
non-exportation  resolution.^  No  good  account  remains  of 
the  protracted  discussion  at  this  stage;  but  the  nature  of 
the  remarks  and  the  attitude  of  leading  members  may  be 
reconstructed  from  John  Adams's  notes  on  an  earlier  occa- 
sion and  from  some  scattered  comments  to  be  found  else- 
where.'' Cushing  adopted  as  his  slogan:  "a  non-importa- 
tion, non-exportation,  and  non-consumption,  and  imme- 
diately," and  was  joined  in  this  by  Dyer  of  Connecticut. 
Lynch  and  the  Rutledges  of  South  Carolina  favored  Cush- 

'^  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  43-51;  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  387-391 5 
I  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  503-507;  Galloway,  Reflections,  pp.  72,  81;  his 
Examifiaiion,  pp.  48,  52  n. ;  his  A  Reply  to  an  Address  to  the  Author  of 
a  Pamphlet,  entitled  "A  Candid  Examination  ..."  (London,  1780), 
p.  109. 

'  Sept.  28,  29,  30;  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  51-52. 

'^  Works,  vol.  ii.  pp.  382-386,  391  n.,  394.  476-478;  Drayton,  Memoirs, 
vol.  i,  p.  168. 


4i6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ing's  proposal  if  the  suspension  of  trade  were  made  abso- 
lute with  the  whole  world,  not  merely  with  British  terri- 
tory. John  Adams  asked  Congress  to  accept  the  logical 
implication  of  endorsing  the  "  Suffolk  Resolves,"  and  to 
resolve  that,  should  further  hostilities  be  pursued  against 
Massachusetts,  or  any  persons  seized  under  the  revived 
statute  of  Henry  VIII,  the  several  provinces  "  ought  imme- 
diately to  cease  all  exportation  of  goods,  wares  and  mer- 
chandise to  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  West  Indies." 

Chase,  who  had  sniffed  at  a  non-importation,  argued  for 
an  immediate  non-exportation  and  a  withholding  of  debts, 
which,  he  believed,  would  represent  a  total  loss  to  British 
merchants  and  manufacturers  of  £7,000,000  for  the  year. 
He  also  urged  an  immediate  non-exportation  of  lumber  to 
the  West  Indies,  for  the  lumber-vessels  exchanged  their 
cargoes  for  sugar  and  carried  the  latter  to  England,  to  the 
great  gain  of  the  merchants  there  and  of  the  British  reve- 
nue. In  this  latter  position  he  was  supported  by  Mifflin  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Sullivan  of  New  Hampshire;  but  Isaac 
Low  of  New  York  warned  against  a  total  prohibition  of  all 
exports  to  the  West  Indies,  as  a  measure  which  would 
"  annihilate  the  fishery "  by  wiping  out  the  West  Indian 
market.  Dyer  proposed  the  withholding  of  flaxseed  from 
Ireland. 

These  and  other  suggestions  were  made  by  various  dele- 


gates; but  it  quickly  became  clear  that,  although  opinion 
was  rapidly  converging  upon  a  plan  of  non-exportation,  the 
Virginia  tobacco  planters,  and  the  South  Carolina  delegates 
representing  powerful  rice  and  indigo  interests,  were  de- 
termined to  protect  the  industries  of  their  respective  prov- 
inces, in  case  such  a  plan  were  adopted.  For  a  time,  atten- 
tion was  centered  upon  the  question  of  suspending  tobacco 
exportation.  The  Maryland  delegates  had  instructions  not 
to  enter  into  any  arrangement  for  the  non-exportation  of 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


417 


tobacco  without  the  concurrence  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina;  and  the  Virginia  delegates  were  explicitly  in- 
structed not  to  consent  to  a  non-exportation  before  August 
10,  1775,  in  order  to  allow  time  for  the  marketing  of  the 
growing  crop.  This  situation  caused  the  exasperated  Chase 
to  declare :  "A  non-exportation  at  a  future  day  cannot 
avail  us.  What  is  the  situation  of  Boston  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts? A  non-exportation  at  the  Virginia  day  will  not 
operate  before  the  fall  of  1776.''  It  was  urged  by  Gadsden 
and  others  that  the  other  provinces  should,  in  this  measure, 
act  independently  of  Virginia;  but  for  taking  this  step  the 
Marylanders  pleaded  their  lack  of  power  and  claimed  that, 
even  were  a  different  course  possible,  it  would  be  undesir- 
able, for  Maryland  and  North  Carolina  tobacco  would  be 
carried  to  Virginia  ports  and  the  latter  would  run  away 
with  their  trade.  Fortunately  for  the  Virginians,  other 
provinces  were  also  willing  to  postpone  the  operation  of  the 
non-exportation;  and  the  date  agreed  upon  in  the  resolu- 
tion eventually  adopted  was  September  10,  1775,  one  month 
later  than  the  Virginia  instructions  required. 

The  South  Carolina  delegates,  from  the  narrow  nature 
of  their  demands,  were  not  equally  successful  in  enlisting 
the  support  of  other  provinces  in  their  cause.  What  they 
desired  ( Gadsden  excepted )  was  nothing  less  than  that  rice 
and  indigo,  the  staples  of  the  province,  should  be  exempted 
from  the  operation  of  the  non-exportation  to  Great  Britain.^ 
They  held  that,  out  of  due  regard  to  the  interests  of  their 
constituents,  it  was  necessary  either  that  the  non-exporta- 
tion should  be  made  operative  against  the  whole  world,  or 
that,  in  case  exportation  were  suspended  with  Great  Britain 
alone,  rice  and  indigo  should  be  made  exceptions  to  the 
regulation,  being  products  which  could  (except  under  cer- 

1  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i,  pp.  169-170;  Izard,  Correspondence,  vol.  i. 
pp.  21-25 ;  statement  of  S.  C.  delegates,  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Dec.  8,  1774. 


4i8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

tain  limited  circumstances)  be  exported  to  Great  Britain 
only,  whereas  the  markets  of  the  world  were  open  to  the 
wheat,  flour,  fish  and  oil  of  the  commercial  provinces.^ 
^  The  South  Carolina  delegates  were  able  to  show  that  but 
a  small  part  of  the  export  trade  of  the  commercial  provinces 
was  with  Great  Britain,  while  on  the  contrary  nearly  all  of 
the  indigo  and  two  thirds  of  the  rice  of  South  Carolina 
went  to  the  ports  of  Great  Britain.  Edward  Rutledge  felt 
justified  in  remarking  that :  "  People  who  are  affected  but 
in  speculation  [i.  e.  in  theory]  and  submit  to  all  the  hard- 
ships attending  it  will  not  shut  up  their  ports,  while  their 
neighbors,  who  are  objects  of  ministerial  vengeance,  enjoy, 
in  a  great  degree,  the  benefits  of  commerce."  Furthermore, 
they  maintained  that  the  commercial  provinces  would  be 
enabled  to  pay  off  their  British  debts  by  the  returns  of  their 
foreign  trade  and  thus  greatly  ameliorate  the  rigor  of  the 
trade  suspension.  In  explaining  the  position  of  the  South 
Carolina  delegation  before  the  South  Carolina  convention  a 
few  months  later,  John  Rutledge  declared  that :  "  Upon  the 
whole,  .  .  .  the  affair  seemed  rather  like  a  commercial 
scheme  among  the  flour  Colonies  to  find  a  better  vent  for 
their  Flour  through  the  British  Channel,  by  preventing,  if 
possible,  any  Rice  from  being  sent  to  those  markets;  and 
that,  for  his  part,  he  could  never  consent  to  our  becoming 
the  dupes  to  the  people  of  the  North  or  in  the  least  to  yield 
to  their  unreasonable  expectations." 

Much  bitter  feeling  was  generated  in  the  Congress.  Ed- 
ward Rutledge  declared  :  "  A  gentleman  from  the  other  end 
of  the  room  talked  of  generosity.     True  equality  is  the 

^  It  will  be  recalled  that  only  enumerated  commodities  of  the  colonies 
were  required  to  be  exported  to  Great  Britain  and  that  many  American 
products  were  not  on  the  enumerated  list.  iRice  and  indigo  were  enu- 
merated, but  under  temporary  acts  a  way  was  opened  by  which  rice 
could  be  exported  to  Southern  Europe  and  to  regions  in  America 
south  of  Georgia. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


419 


only  public  generosity."  \  But  it  quickly  became  apparent 
that  the  vast  majority  were'opposed  to  adopting  the  drastic 
expedient  of  blotting  out  American  export  relations  with 
the  entire  world;  and  that  they  were  equally  disinclined  to 
cater  to  the  self-jpterest  of  the  rice  and  indigo  planters  of 
South  Carolina^j  Richard  Henry  Lee  pleaded  earnestly 
that:  "All  considerations  of  interest,  and  of  equality  of 
sacrifice,  should  be  laid  aside."  In  face  of  the  vehement 
protests  of  the  South  Carolinians,  the  resolution  for  non- 
exportation  was  carried  on  September  30.  According  to  its 
terms,  all  exportation  to  the  British  Isles  and  the  West  In- 
dies should  cease  on  September  20,  1775,  unless  American 
grievances  were  redressed  before  that  time.  The  South 
Carolina  delegates  had  thus  lost  their  first  battle.  But  they 
did  not  accept  defeat,  and  they  laid  plans  to  make  a  final 
stand  before  Congress  adjourned. 

The  principal  features  of  the  plan  of  commercial  resist- 
ance had  now  been  adopted  by  Congress.  The  work  of 
drawing  up  a  complete  plan  "  for  carrying  into  effect  the 
non-importation,  non-consumption  and  non-exportation " 
w^as  now  confided  to  a  special  committee,  consisting  of 
Cushing  of  Massachusetts,  Low  of  New  York,  Mifflin  of 
Pennsylvania,  Lee  of  Virginia,  and  Johnson  of  Maryland.^ 
It  is  worth  noting  that  the  committee  on  rights  and  redress, 
composed  of  two  members  from  each  province,  was  ignored 
in  this  connection,  although  it  still  had  its  report  under  con- 
sideration; and  that,  of  the  committee  of  five,  all  but  Low- 
had  the  reputation  of  favoring  radical  measures.  Low  had 
been  included  probably  because,  as  a  conservative  merchant 
of  great  wealth,  his  name  would  lend  prestige  to  the  work 
of  the  commiitee. 

Meantime.  Congress  did  not  give  the  special  committee 

'Sept.  30;  Journals,  vol.  i,  p.  53. 


420 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


an  absolutely  free  hand,  for  portions  of  three  days  were 
occupied  in  formulating  an  additional  resolution  for  their 
guidance/  This  discussion  was  very  largely  confined  to  the 
advisability  of  extending  the  non-importation  regulation  to 
apply  to  commodities  upon  which  an  import  duty  had  been 
imposed  by  the  revenue  acts  of  1764  and  1766.  The  South- 
ern members  wished  to  phrase  the  resolution  so  as  to  avoid 
the  confusion  arising  from  the  importation  of  smuggled 
articles  of  the  same  kind  as  the  dutied  articles.  "  How  is 
the  purchaser  to  know  whether  the  molasses,  sugar,  or 
coffee  has  paid  the  duty  or  not?"  asked  Pendleton  of  Vir- 
ginia. "  It  can't  be  known."  "  Many  gentlemen  in  this 
room  know  how  to  bring  in  goods,  sugars  and  others,  with- 
out paying  duties,"  declared  Lynch  significantly.  Chase 
urged  the  same  practical  objection  as  Pendleton,  and  ob- 
jected further  because  of  the  principle  involved.  "  Our 
enemies  will  think,"  he  said,  "  that  we  mean  to  strike  at  the 
right  of  Parliament  to  lay  duties  for  the  regulation  of 
trade."  This  caused  Lynch  to  reply :  "  In  my  idea.  Parlia- 
ment has  no  power  to  regulate  trade.  But  these  duties  are 
all  for  revenue,  not  for  regulation  of  trade."  Low  felt 
him.self  called  upon  to  defend  the  merchant  class,  of  which 
he  was  so  respectable  a  member.  "  Gentlemen  have  been 
transported,  by  their  zeal,  into  reflections  upon  an  order  of 
men,  who  deserve  it  least  of  any  men  in  the  community."^ 
He  argued  against  the  exclusion  of  West  India  rum,  sugar 
and  molasses  from  the  provinces  as  a  measure  ruinous  to 
American  business;  and  he  proposed  that,  as  the  importa- 
tion of  East  India  Company  tea  had  been  suspended  by  the 
resolution  of  September  27,  smuggled  Dutch  tea  should 
likewise  be  placed  under  the  ban.^ 

1  Oct.  I,  5,  6;  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  53,  55n.,  57.     Notes  on  the  discussion 
are  in  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  393-394. 
'  Low  gained  his  point  later  in  Art.  i  of  the  completed  Association. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION  421 

The  outcome  of  the  discussion  was  a  resolution  of  Octo- 
ber 6,  which  declared  against  the  importation  of  the  most 
important  dutied  articles  after  December  i  next,  i.  e.  mo- 
lasses, coffee  and  pimento  from  the  British  plantations,  or 
from  Dominica,  formerly  a  French  possession ;  wines  from 
Madeira  and  the  Western  Islands;  and  foreign  indigo. 
The  special  committee  of  five  were  instructed  to  include  this 
new  regulation  in  their  report.  Pendleton  might  well  ex- 
claim :  "  Shan't  we  by  this  hang  out  to  all  the  world  our 
intentions  to  smuggle?"  As  finally  phrased  in  the  com- 
pleted Association,  the  importation  of  syrups  and  paneles 
{i.  e.,  brown  unpurified  sugar)  was  also  forbidden  from  the 
British  plantations  and  Dominica. 

On  Wednesday,  October  12,  the  committee  of  five  re- 
ported the  results  of  their  deliberations  in  the  form  of  an 
"Association,"  which  was  ordered  to  lie  on  the  table  for 
the  perusal  of  the  delegates.  Time  was  spent  on  the  subject 
on  the  following  Saturday,  and  again  on  Monday;  finally, 
on  Tuesday,  October  18,  the  form  of  association  was 
adopted  after  sundry  amendments,  and  was  ordered  to  be 
transcribed  that  it  might  be  signed  by  the  members.^  The 
vote  of  passage  was  not  recorded  as  unanimous,  and  this 
makes  it  extremely  probable  that  the  South  Carolina  dele- 
gation delivered  their  ultimatum  at  this  juncture.'  Lynch, 
Middleton  and  the  Rutledges,  speaking  for  their  province, 
demanded  the  exclusion  of  rice  and  indigo  from  the  non- 
exportation  regulation  as  the  price  of  their  signatures. 
Their  proposition  met  with  an  angry  dissent.     Forty-eight 

'Oct.  12,  15,  17,  i8;  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  62,  74,  75.  No  record  of 
the  debates  remains. 

^  For  this  episode,  vide  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i,  pp.  169-170;  N.  Y. 
Jotirn.,  Dec.  8,  1774;  Izard,  Correspondence,  vol.  i,  pp.  21-25;  Cooper, 
IV hat  Think  Ye  of  Congress  Nowf,  p.  40;  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol. 
xxiv,  no.  2034. 


422  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1768-1776 

hours  were  allowed  to  pass,  during  which  all  parties  had  an 
opportunity  to  digest  the  situation.  Without  the  accession 
of  the  South  Carolina  delegates  to  the  Association,  the 
province  of  South  Carolina  would  not  be  bound  thereby, 
for  such  were  the  terms  of  the  instructions  which  had  been 
granted  the  delegates/  On  the  other  hand,  the  South  Caro- 
lina delegates  were  too  earnest  in  their  opposition  to  parlia- 
mentary encroachment  to  be  willing  to  be  detached  from 
co-operation  with  the  sister  provinces,  if  their  demands 
could  be  partially  met.  On  Thursday,  October  20,  the  final 
trial  of  strength  came.  The  Association  was  read  to  the 
assembled  Congress,  and  the  delegates  advanced  to  the 
table  to  attach  their  signatures.  Thereupon  the  four  dele- 
gates of  South  Carolina  departed  from  the  hall,  leaving 
only  the  stout-hearted  Gadsden,  who  offered  to  sign  his 
name  alone  and  to  trust  to  the  generosity  of  his  constituents 
for  vindication.  But  wiser  counsels  prevailed.  For  the 
sake  of  preserving  the  union  of  the  provinces,  the  departed 
delegates  were  recalled ;  they  agreed  to  abandon  their  point 
regarding  indigo,  and,  in  return.  Congress  conceded  the 
advantage  they  demanded  for  the  article  of  rice. 

According  to  Galloway,  the  majority  were  forced  to  re- 
sort to  some  further  strategy  before  they  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining his  signature  and  those  of  the  other  delegates  who 
had  voted  against  many  parts  of  the  Association.  At  the 
end  of  the  document  were  placed  the  words :  "  The  f  ore- 

^Before  the  Congress  met,  Dr.  Franklin  had  addressed  these  words 
to  a  friend  in  Pennsylvania  :  "  Your  province  will  surely  be  wise  enough 
not  to  enter  into  violent  measures  without  the  strictest  concert  with 
the  other  Colonies,  particularly  Maryland,  Viriginia,  and  the  Carolinas, 
because  on  them  depend  the  whole  effect  of  the  American  non-exporta- 
tion. The  Northern  Colonies  have  all  the  European  markets  almost 
for  their  chief  exports,  but  those  Colonies  have  hardly  any  but  the 
English  markets  for  their  chief  exports  of  tobacco  and  naval  stores 
..."     Mass.  Gas.  &  Post- Boy,  Oct.  24.  1774. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


423 


going  Association  being  determined  upon  by  the  Congress, 
was  ordered  to  be  subscribed  by  the  several  Members 
thereof ;  and  thereupon,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  respective 
names  accordingly."  ^  The  recalcitrant  delegates  were  told 
that  they  were  in  the  position  of  a  Speaker  of  Assembly, 
who  signed,  by  order,  a  bill  that  was  contrary  to  his  per- 
sonal judgment,  a  proceeding  which  could  not  be  considered 
as  his  private  act  but  that  of  the  majority  who  made  the 
order.  This  story  bears  the  earmarks  of  truth,  though  it  is 
clear  that  Galloway  also  felt  impelled  to  sign  ''  on  the 
ground  of  preventing  the  Congress  from  proceeding  to  more 
violent  measures."  ^  Galloway  remarked  afterward  that  he 
would  rather  have  cut  off  his  hand  than  sign.^  Congress 
directed  that  one  hundred  and  twenty  copies  of  the  Associa- 
tion should  be  struck  off;  but  the  document  was  not  made 
public  until  the  close  of  the  session. 

-JThe  Association  was_lh£„mQSt-r£D3arkable  document  put 
forth  by^the  Congressl  Of  its  authorship  nothing  is  known 
definitely,  perhaps  for  the  reason  that/the  instrument  was 
the  outgrowth  of  the  experience  of  all  the  delegates/ through 
a  decade  of  trade-suspension  agreements  and  thus  did  not 
embody  the  views  of  any  one  man  or  any  single  committee. 
In  part,  the  /Association  was  the  standardization  and  nation- 
alization of  the  systems  of  commercial  opposition  which  had 
hitherto  been  employed  upon  a  local  scale:  the  earlier  ex- 
periments in  non-importation,  non-consumption,  and  various 
forms  of  the  secondary  boycott  bore  fruit  in  a  number  of 

1  Galloway,  A  Reply  to  an  Address,  etc.,  pp.  114-115.  The  italics  are 
Galloway's.     Vide  also  Golden.  Letter-Book,  vol.  ii,  p.  374. 

*  Galloway,  Examination,  p.  56.  Vide  also  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxvi,  pp. 
320-321. 

^  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  p.  201.  Several  delegates  were  absent 
on  Oct.  20  and  affixed  their  signatures  later.  Journals,  vol.  i,  p.  81  n. 
The  Association  was  published  in  the  Pa.  Packet,  Oct.  31,  1774  and 
Mass.  Spy,  Nov.  10. 


424 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1768-1776 


carefully  drawn  provisions  of  the  Association.^  The  influ- 
ence of  the  southern  delegates  was  plainly  discernible  in 
many  portions  of  the  paper.  The  very  name,  "Associa- 
tion," was  of  southern  origin,  and  had  been  used  in  that 
section  in  earlien^years  in  preference  to  the  northern  term, 
"Agreement."  ^ost  of  the  basic  features  of  the  Associa- 
tion were,  in  substance,  identical  with  the  Virginia  Asso- 
ciation of  August,  1774^  Furthermore,  one  important  pur- 
pose of  the  Association  made  it  natural  that  the  plantation 
delegates  should  lead  in  its  formulation,  ^^^he  Association, 
though  framed  with  the  primary  object  of  bringing  indus- 
trial pressure  to  bear  upon  England/^vas  a  worthless  fabric 
unless  the  colonial  merchants  could'  be  compelled  to  observe 
its  provisions."^  This  was  a  problem  with  which  the  planters 
in  the  South  had  had  to  deal  in  the  earlier  periods  of  non- 
importation, whereas  the  northern  delegates,  with  the  ex- 

iception  of  Massachusetts,  knew  nothing  of  the  difficulty, 
because  their  non-importation  agreements  had  been  made 
and  enforced  by  the  merchants  themselves./     -4- 

<^  The  Association  wa^a  document  of  more  than  two  thou- 
sand words  divided  into  k  preamble  and  fourteen  articles?? 
The  introductory  paragraphs  avowed  allegiance  to  the  king, 
and  declared  that  commercial  coercion  was  adopted  as  "  the 
most  speedy,  effectual,  and  peaceable  "  method  of  obtaining 
redress  from  the  "  ruinous  S3^stem  of  colony  administra- 
tion," inaugurated  by  Great  Britain  about  the  year  1763 
and  modified  and  elaborated  in  the  subsequent  years. 
Therefore,  continued  the  paper,  "  we  do,  for  ourselves,  and 

^  Vide  supra,  pp.  368-370.  By  this  avenue  of  reasoning,  it  might  ap- 
pear that  Richard  Henry  Lee,  a  member  of  the  committee  of  five,  should 
have  major  credit  for  the  content  of  the  Association.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  known  that  he  held  much  narrower  views  at  the  opening 
of  Congress.     Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  362. 

*  Text  in  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  7S-8i ;  also  in  appendix,  present  volume. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


425 


the  inhabitants  of  the  several  colonies,  whom  we  represent, 
firmly  agree  and  associate,  under  the  sacred  ties  of  virtue, 
honour  and  love  of  our  country  .  .  ."  'The  demand  for  a 
return  to  the  conditions  prevailing  before  1763  was,  in  a 
later  portion,  made  specific  and  unmistakable  by  an  enu- 
meration of  the  acts  that  must  be  repealed.  These  were 
named  as  of  three  groups :  ( i )  the  duties'  on  tea,  wine, 
molasses,  syrups,  paneles,  coffee,  sugar,  pimento,  indigo, 
foreign  paper,  glass,  and  painters'  colors,  and  the  act  ex- 
tending the  powers  of  the  admiralty  courts  beyond  their 
ancient  limits;  (2)'that  part  of  the  act  for  better  securing 
the  royal  dock3^ards,  ships,  etc.  (12  George  III,  c.  24)  by 
which  any  person  in  America,  charged  with  an  offense 
therein  described,  might  be  transported  to  England  for 
trial;  and  (3)  the  three  acts  of  1774  against  Boston  and 
Alassachusetts  and  the  Quebec  Act.^ 

Of  the  fourteen  articles  which  made  up  the  directive 
portion  of  the  Association,  ten  were  devoted  to  establishing 
rules  of  conduct  with  reference  to  non-importation  and  the 
cognate  subject,  non-consumption,  and  with  reference  to 
the  adjustment  of  the  American  standard  of  living  to  the 
tion.  Three  articles  were  applicable  to  both  non-importa- 
tion and  non-exportation  and  contained  the  most  important 
exgpitory  provisions. 

4jNoTi-importation  was  to  become  effective  on  December  i, 
1774.1  Beginning  with  that  date,  no  goods  whatever  were  y 
to  be  imported  from  the  British  Isles,  directly  or  indirectlyX 
new  conditions  created  by  a  suspension  of  trade.  One 
article  dealt  solely  with  the  establishment  of  non-exporta- 
no  East  India  tea  was  to  be  imported  from  any  part  of  the 
world  (thus  affecting  the  smuggled  as  w^ell  as  the  legal  ar- 
ticle) ;  the  importation  of  molasses,  syrups,  paneles,  coffee 

•  Art.  xiv. 


426  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

or  pimento  from  the  British  plantations  and  Dominica  was 
forbidden,  of  wines  from  Madeira  and  the  Western  Islands, 
of  indigo  from   foreign  parts.  ^  vlt  was  further  declared! 
specifically  that  no  slaves  were  to  be  imported  after  that' 
date.^ 

Next,  as  ''  an  effectual  security  for  the  observation  of  the 
non-importation,'!  fa  non-consumption  regulation  was  de- 
vised. No  goods  should  be  purchased  pr  used  which  there 
was  cause  to  suspect  had  been  imported  after  December  i , 
1 7747except  under  special  conditions  described  in  Article  x ; 
likewise  in  the  case  of  slavesA  Venders  of  imported  goods 
were  warned  not  to  take  advantage  of  the  scarcity  of  goods 
but  were  required  to  sell  at  their  customary  rates  during  the 
preceding  year.*  An  immediate  non-consumption  of  dutied 
tea  was  announced,  with  the  provision  that  after  March  i, 
i775»  the  use  of  smuggled  tea  should  also  be  abandoned.^ 
^Article  x  provided  for  the  disposal  of  merchandise  im- 
jxDrted  contrary  to  the  Association.  If  any  such  imports 
arrived  during  the  first  two  months  of  the  non-importation 
a.  e.,  before  February  i.  1775),  the  owner  should  have  the 
option  of  re-shipping  the  goods  immediately,  or  of  storing 
the  goods  at  his  own  ri^v^dth  the  local  committee  during 
the  duration  of  the  non-importation,  or  of  authorizing  the 
committee  to  sell  the  goods.  In  the  last  case,  the  owner  was 
to  receive  from  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  the  first  cost  and 
charges:  the  profit,  if  any.  was  to  be  applied  toward  em- 
ploying the  victims  of  the  Boston  Port  Act.  <^^Should  any 
goods  arrive  after  February  i,  1775,  they  "  ought  forth- 
with to  be  sent  back  again,  without  breaking  any  of  the 
packages  thereof."^ 

Sumptuary  regulations  were  made  in  preparation  for  the 


-<^u 


Art.  i.  '  Art.  ii. 

*  Arts,  iii  and  ii. 

*  Art.  ix.  '  Art.  iii. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


427 


radical  change  which  the  absence  of  imported  goods  was 
certain  to  produce  in  the  hfe  of  the  average  American;- 
■'  Utmost  endeavours  "  were  to  be  made  to  improve  the 
breed  of  sheep  and  to  increase  their  number/  "Agricul- 
ture, arts  and  the  manufactures  of  this  country,  especially 
that  of  wool,"  were  to  be  promoted."  All  American  manu- 
factures were  required  to  be  sold  at  reasonable  prices,  so 
that  no  undue  advantage  might  be  taken  of  a  future  scar- 
city of  goods. ^  Rigid  economy  was  to  be  practised :  we 
"  will  discountenance  and  discourage  every  species  of  ex- 
travagance and  dissipation,  especially  all  horseracing,  and 
all  kinds  of  gaming,  cock-fighting,  exhibitions  of  shews, 
plays,  and  other  expensive  diversions  and  entertainments." 
Economy  in  mourning  was  revived  from  the  days  of  1765- 
17^,  detailed  directions  being  given.* 

/♦The  non-exportatign  regulation  was  announced  to  be- 
come operative  on  September  10,  I775,i/f  Parliament  had 
not  made  amends  by  that  time,  beginning  with  that  date, 
no  goods  whatsoever  should  be  exported,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to., the  British  Isles  or  the  West  Indies,  except  rice 
to  Europe^  Another  part  provided  that  no  sheep  should 
be  exported  to  the  West  Indies  or  elsewhere ;  and  this  regu- 
lation was  to  become  effective  immediately.*^ 

In  some  respects,  the  most  important  portions  of  the 
Association  related  to  the  means  of  enforcement.  I-^cking 
legal  sanction,  the  Continental  Congress  were  compelled  to 
create  their  own  administrative  and  judicial  machinery  and 
to  impose  their  own  penalties.  /^Hiis  machinery  was  to  con- 
sist of  a  committee  in  every  county,  city  and  town,  chosen 
by  those  qualified  to  vote  for  representatives  in  the  legisla- 
ture^ These  committees  were  "  attentively  to  observe  the 

*  Art.  vii.  '  Art.  viii. 
'  Art.  xiii.  *  Art.  viii. 

*  Art.  iv.  "  Art.  vii. 


428  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

conduct  of  all  persons  touching  this  association,"  and,  in 
case  of  a  violation,  to  publish  "  the  truth  of  the  case  "  in  the 
newspapers,  to  the  end  that  all  such  "  enemies  of  American 
libe;*ty  "  might  be  universally  contemned  and  boycotted/ 
/^t  this  point  the  Association  exposed  its  real  character  as 
a  qi5^si-law,  inasmuch  as  its  binding  force  was  not  limited  to 
those  who  accepted  its  provisions  but  was  made  applicable 
to  "  all  persons."  It  was  one  thing  for  two  or  more  men 
to  agree  with  each  other  not  to  buy  goods  from  British 
merchants;  quite  another  to  agree  that,  if  a  man  not  a 
party  to  the  compact,  bought  goods,  they  would  restrain 
him  and  ruin  his  business^^^For  fear  that  this  regulation 
would  not  reach  non-residents,  it  was  provided  that  any 
British  or  Irish  merchant  guilty  of  transgressing  the  non- 
importation should  likewise  be  published  and  boycotted ;  ^ 
that  captains  of  American  vessels  should  be  forbidden  to 
receive  on  board  prohibited  imports  on  pain  of  immediate 
dismissal ;  ^  and  that  no  vessels  should  be  hired  or  com- 
modities sold  to  th9se  engaged  in  the  slave  trade  after  De- 
cember I,  1774.*  .The  principle  of  the  boycott  was  invoked 
against  whole  provinces  in  the  provision  that  "  no  trade, 
commerce,  dealings  or  intercourse  whatsoever  "  should  be 
sustained  with  any  province  in  North  America  which  did 
not  accede  to  or  hereafter  violated  the  Association.^  The 
committees  of  correspondence  of  the  various  provinces  were 
instructed  to  inspect  the  custom-house  entries  frequently 
and  to  inform  each  other  of  "  every  material  circumstance 
that  may  occur  relative  to  this  association."  **  Finally,  great 
elasticity  was  given  to  the  enforcement  provisions  by  the 
blanket  recommendation  that  the  provincial  conventions 
and  the  committees  in  the  various  provinces  should  "  estab- 

^  Art.  xi.  *  Art.  v. 

'  Art.  vi.  *  Art.  ii. 

*Art.  xiv.  ,  *Art.  xii. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


429 


Ush  such  farther  regulations  as  they  may  think  proper,  for 
carrying  into  execution  this  association."  ^ 
C  A  few  days  after  Congress  had  completed  the  Associa- 
tion, a  resolution  was  passed  f  onjcalling  another  continental 
congress  to  meet  on  May  10,  1775,  if  American  grievances 
should  not  then  be  redressed.^  )  Thus,  a  second  congress 
was  to  be  held  four  months  before  the  time  at  which  the 
non-exportation  regulation  was  scheduled  to  go  into  effect, 
— which  obviously  meant  that  an  opportunity  would  be 
afforded  for  further  modifications  of  that  measure,  if  any 
should  prove  desirable.  The  balance  of  the  time  of  Con- 
gress was  spent  in  drawing  up  a  declaration  of  rights  and 
grievances,  and  in  formulating  addresses  to  the  people  of 
Great  Britain,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  colonies,  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Quebec,  and  to  the  king.*  These  papers 
varied  widely  in  form  and  phraseology  and  intent,  but  all 
joined  in  endorsing  the  sentiment ;.  '  Place  us  in  the  same 
situation  that  we  were  at  the  close  01  the  last  war,  and  our 
former  harmony  will  be  restored.'  *  ■)The  declaration  of 
rights  and  grievances  undertook  to  define  the  colonial  theory 
of  the  power  of  Parliament.  This  matter  had  caused  con- 
siderable difficulty  in  Congress.  Five  provinces  maintained 
that  Parliament  had  the  right  to  regulate  trade;  five  prov- 
inces denied  this  view;  and  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island  were  divided  within  themselves. °  A  statement  was 
finally  agreed  upon  to  the  effect  that  the  colonial  legisla- 

'Art.  xiv. 

'  Oct.  22 ;  Journals,  vol.  i,  p.  102. 

'John  Adams  wrote  to  Jefferson  in  1813:  "I  never  bestowed  much 
attention  on  any  of  those  addresses,  which  were  all  but  repetitions  of 
the  same  things,  the  same  facts  and  arguments  ...  I  was  in  a  great 
error,  no  doubt,  .  .  .  for  those  things  were  necessary  to  give  popularity 
to  our  cause,  both  at  home  and  abroad."     Works,  vol.  x,  p.  80. 

*  Journals,  vol.  i,  p.  8q. 

'  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  397. 


430 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


tures  had  exclusive  powers  of  law-making  in  all  cases  of 
taxation  and  internal  polity,  subject  only  to  the  yoyal  nega- 
tive; and  that  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  the  colonists 
did  "  cheerfully  consent  "  to  the  bona  fide  regulation  of  their 
external  commerce  by  Parliament  when  it  was  done  for  the 
good  of  the  whole  empire  and  contained  no  "  idea  of  taxa- 
tion, internal  or  external,  for  raising  a  revenue  on  the  sub- 
jects in  America,  without  their  consent."  ^  The  list  of  acts, 
whose  repeal  was  held  by  the  declaration  of  rights  and 
grievances  to  be  "  essentially  necessary,"  was  somewhat 
more  comprehensive  than  the  group  of  laws  named  as  the 
object  of  the  Association,  and  included  the  Currency  Act 
of  1764,  the  act  establishing  the  board  of  customs  commis- 
sioners and  reorganizing  the  customs  service,  and  the  quar- 
tering act  of  1774.^ 

The  Boston  Tea  Party — the  episode  that  had  precipitated 
the  present  crisis — received  scant  notice.  In  the  address  to 
the  colonists,  it  was  noted  that  the  British  administration 
had  entered  into  a  "  monopolizing  combination  "  with  the 
East  India  Company  to  send  a  dutied  commodity  to  Amer- 
ica, and  that  the  tea  sent  to  Boston  was  destroyed  because 
Governor  Hutchinson  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  returned.^ 
A  longer  discussion  of  the  affair  appeared  in  the  address  to 
the  people  of  Great  Britain ;  some  slight  effort  was  made  to 
justify  the  destruction,  but  most  emphasis  was  placed  on 
the  thought  that :  "  even  supposing  a  trespass  was  thereby 
committed  and  the  proprietors  of  the  Tea  entitled  to  dam- 
ages, the  Courts  of  Law  were  open  "  for  the  prosecution  of 
suits,  instead  of  which  thirty  thousand  souls  had  been  re- 
duced to  poverty  and  distress  upon  unauthenticated  ex  parte 

'  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  68-69. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  71-73. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  98. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  ASSOCIATION 


431 


evidence,  for  the  act  of  thirty  or  forty/     No  mention  what- 
ever was  made  of  the  matter  in  the  other  documents. 

Congress  adjourned  on  Wednesday,  October  26,  and  the 
great  majority  of  the  delegates  departed  for  their  homes 
with  the  feehng  that  effective  measures  for  a  reconciHation 
had  been  taken.  But  there  were  some  dissenting  minds." 
Furthermore,  the  supreme  test  was  yet  to  come :  what  would 
the  country  think  of  the  work  of  Congress?  how  would 
the  people  receive  the  Association?  would  the  Association 
prove  workable? 

^  Journals,  vol.  i,  pp.  85-87. 

-Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  x,  pp.  278-279;  letter  of  Dickinson,  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  947. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Ratification  of  the  Continental  Association 
(November,  1774-JuNE,  1775) 

Enough  has  been  said  to  make  clear  thatfthe  action  of  the 
First  Continental  Congress  involved  a  defeat  for  the  moder- 
ates and  the  mercantile  interests.  /The  radicals  had  achieved 
several  important  ends^l  They  haa  ^produced  on  a  national 
scale  a  tyj>e  of  organisation  and  a  species  of  tactics  that  in 
many  parts  of  British  America  had  enabled  a  determined 
minority  to  seize  control  of  affairs.^j^t_  is  not  too  fantastic 
to  say  that  they  had  snatched  from  the  merchant  class  the 
weapons  which  the  latter  had  fashioned  to  advance  their  own 
selfish  interests  in  former  years,  and  had  now  reversed  the 
weapons  on  them  in  an  attempt  to  secure  ends  desired  solely 
by  the  radicalsAFinally,  they  had  defined — nationalized — the 
issue  at  stake  in  such  a  manner  as  to  afford  prestige  to  rad- 
ical groups,  wherever  they  were  to  be  found,  and  to  weaken 
the  hold  of  the  moderate  elements,  on  the  ground  that  the 
latter  were  at  variance  with  the  Continental  Congress. 

An  ultra-radical  interpretation  of  the  radical  victory  was 
made  at  the  time  in  these  words  :  'O'he  American  Congress 
derives  all  its  power,  wisdom  and  justice,  not  from  scrolls 
of  parchment  signed  by  Kings,  but  from  the  People. \,  A 
more  august,  and  a  more  equitable  Legislative  body  fiever 
existed  in  any  quarter  of  the  globe  .  .  .  The  Congress, 
like  other  Legislative  bodies,  have  annexed  penalties  to  their 
laws.  They  do  not  consist  of  the  gallows,  the  rack,  and  the 
stake  .  .  .  but  infamy,  a  species  of  infamy  .  .  .  more 
432 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


433 


dreadful  to  a  freeman  than  the  gallows,  the  rack,  or  the 
stake.     It  is  this,  he  shall  be  declared  in  the  publick  papers 

to  be  an  enemy  to  his  country The  least  deviation 

from  the  Resolves  of  the  Congress  will  be  treason  :v-such 
treason  as  few  villains  have  ever  had  an  opportunity  of 
committing.  It  will  be  treason  against  the  present  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Colonies :  Against  the  millions  of  unborn  gen- 
erations who  are  to  exist  hereafter  in  America:  Against 
the  only  liberty  and  happiness  which  remain  to  mankind  : 
Against  the  last  hopes  of  the  wretched  in  every  corner  of 
the  world. — In  a  word,  it  will  be  treason  against  God."  ^ 

Such  sentiments  stiffened  the  radical  party  in  all  parts  of 
the  continent,  and  it  hardly  occasions  wonder  that  a  rever- 
end divine  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  should  have  been  dismissed 
from  his  congregation  "for  his  audacity  in  standing  up  in  his 
pulpit,  and  impudently  saying  that  mechanics  and  countr)' 
clowns  had  no  right  to  dispute  about  politics,  or  what  kings, 
lords  and  commons  had  done!"  Nor  was  it  necessary  for 
the  Newport  Mercury  to  add  that :  "All  such  divines  should 
be  taught  to  know  that  mechanics  and  country  clowns  (in- 
famously so  called)  are  the  real  and  absolute  masters  of 
king,  lords,  commons  and  priests  .  .  ."  ^ 
(Wh.t  moderates  began  to  realize  that  they  had  committed 
an  error  in  lending:  countenance  to  the  movement  for  an 
extra-legal  congress."^.  In  the  eyes  of  many  of  them,  any 
direct  connection  with  this  congress  and  its  committees  be- 
came equivalent  to  rebellion ;  typical  of  this  group,  Joseph 
Galloway  now  withdrew  from  the  extra-legal  activities  alto- 
gether.    Others,  like  Isaac  Low.  lingered  in  the  movement, 

*  "  Political  Observations,  without  Order ;  Addressed  to  the  People 
of  America,"  Pa.  Packet,  Nov.  14,  I774;  a'so  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
976-977.  This  article  created  wide  interest.  Two  replies  appeared  in 
the  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Dec.  i,  1774- 

*  Nezvport  Merc,  Sept.  26,  1774;  also  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Oct.  13. 


434 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


persuaded  that  they  could  salvage  in  their  local  politics  what 
had  seemed  shipwrecked  in  the  Continental  Congress,  or 
because,  like  John  Andrews  of  Boston,  they  were  swayed 
by  the  impalpable  influences  of  environment^  temperament, 
habit,   education   or   social  connections.^  /As  the   months 

'John  Andrews  was  a  well-to-do  merchant  of  Boston,  who  sat  com- 
placently at  home  drinking  tea  while  the  mob  made  their  descent  upon 
the  East  India  Company's  shipments  at  the  wharf.  He  wrote  a  witty 
letter  about  it  a  few  days  later,  and  did  not  discover  his  indignation 
over  the  destruction  until  it  became  apparent  to  him  that,  between  the 
Scylla  of  the  Boston  Port  Act  and  the  Charybdis  of  the  radicals' 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  his  business  would  surely  be  wrecked. 
At  this  time  he  had  stock  on  his  shelves  amounting  to  about  £2000 
sterling  and  almost  as  much  more  out  in  debts.  He  could  say  with 
feeling  that  he  opposed  "  Tyranny  exerciz'd  either  in  England  or 
America."  He  was  disposed  to  favor  the  opening  of  the  port  of 
Boston  through  reimbursing  the  East  India  Company  for  their  losses. 
Later,  he  entertained  hopes  that  the  Continental  Congress  would  af- 
ford relief  that  would  be  "  lasting  and  permanent."  About  this  tim€ 
it  would  appear  that  he  began  to  be  affected  by  the  excited  state  of 
public  opinion  and  was  himself  much  irritated  by  the  rudeness  and 
imm.orality  of  the  soldiers.  He  wrote  on  August  20,  1774:  "When 
I  seriously  reflect  on  the  unhappy  situation  we  are  in,  I  cant  but  be 
uneasy  least  ye  trade  of  the  town  should  never  be  reinstated  again :  but 
on  the  other  hand,  when  I  consider  that  our  future  welfare  depends 
altogether  upon  a  steady  and  firm  adherence  to  the  common  cause,  I 
console  myself  with  the  thoughts  that  if,  after  using  every  effort  in 
our  power,  we  are  finally  oblig'd  to  submit,  we  shall  leave  this  testi- 
mony behind  us,  that,  not  being  able  to  stem  the  stream,  we  were  of 
necessity  borne  down  by  the  torrent."  However,  his  mood  became  less 
exalted  in  October,  and  he  wrote,  with  reference  to  mob  violence: 
"every  day's  experience  tells  me  that  not  only  good  policy,  but  our 
own  quiet,  absolutely  depends  upon  a  bare  acquiescence  at  least. 
Therefore  I  esteem  them  very  blameable  who  have  persisted  in 
opposition  to  them,  as  vox  populi,  vox  Dei — and  their  resentment  is 
so  great  in  return,  that  it's  a  chance  whether  (if  their  struggles  should 
produce  better  times)  they  will  ever  admit  of  such  passing  their  future 
days  uninterrupted  among  'em."  Andrews  became  more  closely  identi- 
fied with  the  radical  side  as  time  passed  and  was  a  patriot  at  the  time 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  /  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  viii,  pp. 
326-33J.  339.  343-344,  377- 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


435 


passed,  there  was  presented  to  every  merchant,  with  in- 
creasing sharpness,  the  alternative  of  adhering  to  Congress, 
even  if  it  meant  rebelHon  and  independence,  to  which  his 
class  had  always  been  opposed,  or  of  adhering  to  Great 
Britain,  even  if  that  meant  submission  to  those  parliamen- 
tary measures  to  which  his  class  were  also  opposed.  The 
increasing  tendency  of  the  moderates  w^as  to  follow  the 
counsel  offered  by  one  who  himself  had  once  been  zealous 
in  meetings  and  organizations  of  the  people :  ''As  we  have 
already  done  what  we  ought  not  to  have  done,  and  left  un- 
done what  we  ought  to  have  done,  let  us  ...  in  time  re- 
turn to  our  Constitution,  and  by  our  Representatives,  like 
honest  men,  state  our  grievances,  and  ask  relief  of  the 
mother  state ;  let  us  do  this  with  that  plainness  and  decency 
of  language  that  will  .  .  .  remove  every  suspicion  that  we 
have  the  least  intention  or  desire  to  be  independent."  ^ 
^;^he  publication  of  the  Continental  Association  was 
greeted  with  a  storm  of  protest  from  the  moderate  press  in 
the  leading  commercial  provinces7(  These  tracts  were  rem- 
iniscent of  the  controversial  literature  produced  under 
somewhat  similar  circumstances  by  Drayton  at  Charleston 
and  by  the  writers  in  Mein's  Boston  Chronicle  in  the  years 
1769-1770.^  >The  chief  plaint  was  directed  against  those 

'"Z"  in  iV.  i'.  Gazetteer.  Dec.  i,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
987-989.  (For  identity  of  "  Z,"  vide  ibid.,  pp.  1096-1097.)  Vide  also 
Seabury,  Free  Thoughts  on  the  Proceedings  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress .  .  .  (New  York,  1774),  p.  29:  "Renounce  all  dependence  on 
Congress  and  committees.  .  .  .  Turn  your  eyes  to  your  constitutional 
representatives  ..." 

-  The  principal  writings  were :  the  articles  by  "  Massachusettensis  " 
(Daniel  Leonard)  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  at  intervals  from  Dec.  12, 
1774,  to  April  3,  1775.  afterwards  published  as  a  pamphlet:  a  series, 
addressed  "To  the  Honourable  Peyton  Randolph,  Esq.,  late  President 
of  the  American  Continental  Congress,"  by  "  Grotius "  in  the  same 
newspaper:  the  anonymous  pamphlets,  What  Think  Ye  of  Congress 
Now?,  Free  Thoughts  on  the  Proceedings  of  the  Continental  Congress 


436  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

provisions  which  seemed  to  establish^  the  Continental  Con- 
gress as  a  sort  of  dc  facto  government./  "A'lassachusettensis" 
claimed  that  the  Association  contained  all  the  constituent 
parts  of  a  law,  including  an  enacting  clause,  the  establish- 
ment of  rules  of  conduct,  and  the  affixing  of  pains  and 
penalties.  Although  the  terms  "  request ''  and  "  recom- 
mend "  were  sometimes  used,  the  usual  style  was  that  used 
by  an  authoritative  assemblage — that  such  and  such  a 
thing  "  be ''  done.  "  By  their  assuming  the  powers  of 
legislation,  the  Congress  have  not  only  superseded  our  pro- 
vincial legislatures,  but  have  excluded  every  idea  of  mon- 
archy ;  and  not  content  with  the  havock  already  made  in  our 
constitution,  in  the  plenitude  of  their  power  have  appointed 
another  Congress  to  be  held  in  May."  '  The  Association, 
according  to  another  writer,  "  is  calculated  for  the  meridian 
of  a  Spanish  Inquisition;  it  is  subversive  of,  inconsistent 
with,  the  wholesome  laws  of  our  happy  Constitution ;  it  ab- 
rogates or  suspends  many  of  them  essential  to  the  peace 
and  order  of  Government;  it  takes  the  Government  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Governour,  Council,  and  General  Assem- 
bly; and  the  execution  of  the  laws  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
Civil  Magistrates  and  Juries."  " 

A  third  writer  agreed  that  the  committees  appointed  to 
enforce  the  Association  were  "  a  court  established  upon  the 
same  principles  with  the  papish  Inquisition.  No  proofs,  no 
evidence  are  called  for.    .    .    .    No  jury  is  to  be  impannelled. 

.  .  .  by  a  Farmer,  and  The  Congress  Canvassed  .  .  .  hy  A.  W.  Farmer, 
probably  written  by  Samuel  Seabury;  a  pamphlet,  Alarm  to  the  Legis- 
lature of  Nezv  York  .  .  .,  by  Isaac  Wilkins;  articles  in  the  N.  Y. 
Gazetteer  by  "  Z,''  "A  Freeholder  of  Essex,"  and  others. 

^  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Mch.  27,  i77S-  Vide  also  Congress  Can- 
vassed, p.  14. 

*-V.  y.  Gazetteer,  Feb.  16,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1211- 
1213.  Vide  also  Congress  Canvassed,  p.  20;  Alarm  to  Legislature, 
PP-  7,  9- 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


437 


No  check  is  appointed  upon  this  court;  no  appeal  from  its 
determination."  ^  The  means  prescribed  for  carrying  out 
the  Association,  affirmed  "  Grotius  "  in  an  open  letter  to 
the  recent  president  of  Congress,  "  would  shock  the  soul  of 
a  savage;  your  tenth,  eleventh  and  fourteenth  articles  con- 
tain such  a  system  of  lawless  tyranny  as  a  Turk  would 
startle  at;  it  is  a  barbarous  inroad  upon  the  first  rights  of 
men  in  a  social  state ;  it  is  a  violent  attack  upon  the  lawfully 
acquired  property  of  honest,  industrious  individuals."  ^ 

One  unworldly  Connecticut  parson  furnished  another 
ground  for  objection :  "  The  Saviour  of  the  world,  whose 
servant  I  am,  hath  commanded  me  to  feed  the  hungry,  to 
give  drink  to  the  thirsty,  to  clothe  the  naked  .  .  .  Here  it 
will  be  to  no  purpose  to  say  that  such  and  such  persons  are 
mine  enemies;  because  our  Lord  hath  expressly  .  .  . 
commanded  me  to  extend  my  good  offices  to  mine  enemies 
as  such.  And  I  beg  the  Committee  to  remember  that  Min- 
isters of  the  gospel  are,  in  a  particular  manner,  commanded 
to  keep  hospitality."  ^  "  Had  an  Act  of  Parliament  formed 
such  an  inquisition  .  .  .  ,"  declared  another  writer,  "  how 
should  we  have  heard  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  his  right 
to  trial  by  his  peers,  &c.,  &c.  Yet  these  men,  at  the  same 
time  they  arraign  the  highest  authority  on  earth,  insolently 
trample  on  the  liberties  of  their  fellow-subjects ;  and,  with- 
out the  shadow  of  a  trial,  take  from  them  their  property, 
grant  it  to  others,  and  not  content  with  all  this,  hold  them 
up  to  contempt,  and  expose  them  to  the  vilest  injuries."  * 

*  Congress  Canvassed,  p.  14. 

*  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Feb.  6,  1775. 

* "  I  am  no  politician,  am  not  connected  with  politicians  as  such ; 
and  never  will  be  either,"  he  added.  Rev.  John  Sayre,  Fairfield,  Conn., 
in  N.  Y.  lourn.,  Sept.  28,  1775.  For  a  scriptural  answer,  vide  ibid., 
Oct.  26. 

*"Z"  in  N.  Y.  Gasetteer,  Dec.  i,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  987-989. 


438  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 

The  opinion  of  the  average  moderate  was  well  expressed 
by  the  sentiment :  "  If  I  must  be  enslaved,  let  it  be  by  a 
KING  at  least,  and  not  by  a  parcel  of  upstart  lawless  Com- 
mittee-men. If  I  must  be  devoured,  let  me  be  devoured  by 
the  jaws  of  a  lion,  and  not  gnawed  to  death  by  rats  and 
vermin."  ^ 

A  great  deal  was  said  about  the  impracticability  of  the 
Association  as  a  means  of  redress.  The  pamphlet,  Free 
Thoughts  on  the  Proceedings  of  the  Contmental  Congress, 
went  extensively  into  the  matter.  It  was  predicted  that 
there  would  be  twenty  times  as  much  confusion  and  distress 
in  America  as  in  Great  Britain;  that  prices  would  soar; 
that  the  American  merchants  would  lose  their  trade  per- 
manently, for  Great  Britain  would  look  elsewhere  for  raw 
materials;  that  Parliament  would  block  up  all  American 
ports :  that  legal  processes  would  be  suspended ;  that  the 
farmers  would  be  the  chief  sufferers ;  and  all  this  calamity 
in  a  fruitless  effort  to  obtain  results  which  should  be  sought 
only  through  the  usual  legal  channels. 

•The  moderate  members  of  Congress  were  frankly  accused 
of  having  been  outwitted  and  outmaneuvered  by  the  radicals] 
"  You  had  all  the  honors. — you  had  all  the  leading  cards  in 
ever}-  sute  in  your  own  hands,"  one  writer  told  the  moder- 
ates, "  and  yet,  astonishing  as  it  may  appear  to  by-standers, 
you  suffered  sharpers  to  get  the  odd  trick."  "  A  New  York 
writer  stated  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  the  New 
York  delegates  had  opposed  the  headlong  measures  of  Con- 
gress and  still  disapproved  of  them;  and  he  called  upon 

'  Free  Thoughts,  p.  23.  Vide  also  "A  Freeholder  of  Essex  "  in  N.  Y. 
Gazetteer,  Jan.  5,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1094-1096. 

■■'  "  Grotius  "  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Feb.  6,  1775.  "Adams,  with 
his  crew,  and  the  haughty  Sultans  of  the  South  juggled  the  whole  con- 
clave of  the  Delegates."  was  the  way  a  Maryland  merchant  phrased  it 
in  a  published  letter.     4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  Ii94- 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


439 


them  to  assert  themselves  despite  the  obligations  of  per- 
petual secrecy/ 

The  special  concession  granted  to  South  Carolina  in  the 
Association  caused  much  comment,  even  in  radical  circles. 
The  writer  just  mentioned  called  upon  the  New  York  dele- 
gates to  state  why  the  South  Carolina  delegates  had  suc- 
ceeded better  than  they  in  securing  special  indulgences  for 
their  constituents.^  A  Virginia  scribbler  protested  that  the 
tobacco  interests  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  rice  planters  and 
wheat  exporters.^  One  distracted  fellow  burst  into  verse, 
eighty-two  stanzas  in  length,  in  the  following  manner : 

LIX 
Suppose  all  truth  the  Congress  say, 

No  doubt  they  make  the  worst; 
Can  we,  my  Friends,  for  many  a  day, 

Be  so  completely  curst, 

LX 
As  have  no  cloaths,  no  grog,  no  tea, 

To  cheer  our  drooping  spirits ; 
And  snug  in  clover  smugglers  see. 

Who  have  not  half  our  merits. 

LXI 
Isn't  it  now  a  pretty  story. 

One  smells  it  in  a  trice, 
If  I  send  wheat,  I  am  a  Tory, 

But  Charles-town  may  send  RICE.* 

Even  the  Albany  Committee  of  Correspondence,  upon  a 
plea  of  the  necessity  for  harmony,  took  occasion  to  inquire 
of  the  New  York  delegates  upon  what  principle  a  discrimi- 
ration  had  been  allowed  in  favor  of  South  Carolina.^ 

'  What  Think  Ye  of  Congress  Now?,  pp.  23-24.  Vide  also  Alarm 
to  Legislature,  p.  9  n. 

*  What  Think  Ye  of  Congress  Now?,  p.  40. 

'iV.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Apr.  13,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  163. 

*  Poor  Man's  Advice  to  his  Poor  Neighbours  (New  York,  1774). 

*  A^  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  16,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1097-1098. 


(\, 


y 


440  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Notwithstanding  the  polemics  of  the  opposition,  the  work 
of  estabhshing  the  administrative  machinery  for  the  Asso- 

„ciation  had  gotten  irresistibly  under  way. /The  fact  of  the 

matter  was  that  the  moderate  elements  lacked  an  organiza- 

p^  .  J  tion  through  which  to  express  their  opposition  at  this  crit- 

Meal  juncture/  Indeed,  the  logic  of  their  own  position  in- 
clined them  to  avoid  all  extra-legal  organization  even  for 
purposes  of  self-defense.^>  Furthermore,  the  coup  of  the 
radicals  in  nationalizing  the  committee  system  shook  to  the 
center  such  control  as  the  moderates  had  already  established 
in  various  localities.  The  energies  of  the  friends  of  the  As- 
sociation were  first  directed  to  the  appointment  of  commit- 
tees of  observation  and  inspection  in  the  local  subdivisions  of 
the  several  provinces,  and  to  obtaining  formal  sanction  for 
the  Association  from  the  provincial  assembly  or  other  pro- 
vincial meeting.  It  was  not  specified  in  the  Association  that 
endorsement  by  a  provincial  body  was  necessary — though 
perhaps  it  was  hinted  at  in  Article  xiv — but  in  any  case  it 
v/as  good  politics.  The  remainder  of  this  chapter  will  be 
devoted  to  the  progress  that  was  made  along  these  lines. 

Massachusetts,  being  the  storm  centre  of  the  contest  with 
Great  Britain,  was  one  of  the  earliest  provinces  to  move. 
The  leading  ports  (Boston  harbor  being  closed)  led  the 
way :  Marblehead  and  Newburyport  appointed  committees 

^  Cf.  Gage's  view;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  981. 

^ "  Pray  examine  the  Province  law  throughout,  and  all  other  law 
authorities  that  ever  were  held  in  repute  by  the  English  nation,"  de- 
clared "  Spectator  "  to  the  signers  of  a  loyaHst  association,  "  and  you 
will  not  find  one  instance  wherein  they  justify  a  number  of  men  in 
combining  together  in  any  league  whatsoever  to  support  the  law,  but 
quite  the  reverse ;  for  the  law  is  supported  in  another  manner ;  it  is 
maintained  by  Magistrates  and  Officers  .  .  .  and  not  by  a  number  of 
men  combining  together."  X.  H.  Gaz.,  Mch.  31,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  ii,  p.  252. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


441 


early  in  November,  and  Salem  about  a  month  later.  Gov- 
ernor Gage  had  deemed  it  unsafe  to  permit  the  Assembly 
to  meet;  and  the  radical  leadership  of  the  province  had 
therefore  devolved  upon  the  provincial  congress,  which  was, 
to  a  large  extent,  the  rejected  Assembly  under  a  different 
name.  Whence  provincial  congress  met  on  November  23. 
1774,  in  their  hrst  session  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  they  lost  no  time  in  taking  under 
consideration  the  proceedings  of  the  Continental  Congress ; 
and  on  December  5  they  voted  their  endorsement^  recom- 
mending that  committees  of  inspection  be  chosen  in  every 
town  and  district  not  already  having  such  committees.^ 

The  town  of  Boston  now  acted.  After  unanimously 
voting  to  continue  the  committee  of  correspondence — that 
grain  of  mustard  tliat  had  now  become  a  great  tree — the 
town  meeting  on  December  7  appointed  a  committee  of 
sixty-three,  headed  by  Gushing,  Hancock  and  Sam  Adams, 
to  enforce  the  Association.  It  is  significant  of  the  trend  of 
events  that  a  goodly  majority  of  the  Sixty-Three  were 
small  shopkeepers,  mechanics  and  other  men  of  non-mer- 
cantile employment ;  and  that  among  the  members  appeared 
such  names  as  Thomas  Chase  and  John  Avery,  the  distil- 
lers, Paul  Revere,  the  silversmith,  and  Henry  Bass,  the 
radical  merchant, — men  who  had  been  "  Sons  of  Liberty  " 
in  the  earlier  times  and  had  hitherto  been  nameless  for  the 
purposes  of  the  public  press  and  committee  rosters.'     The 

'  Mass.  Spy,  Dec.  8,  1774;  also  4  ^»'-  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  993-998. 

*An  unfriendly  characterization  of  the  Sixty-Three  supplies  inter- 
esting facts  concerning  certain  obscure  members  of  this  committee. 
John  Pulling  was  "Bully  of  the  Mohawk  tribe;"  John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
was  "Alias  Joyce  Jr.,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  for  tarring  and 
feathering;"  Captain  Ruddock,  "supposed  to  be  one  Abiel  Ruddock, 
formerly  head  of  the  Mob  on  the  fifth  of  November;"  Joseph  Eayres, 
"carpenter,  eminent  for  erecting  Liberty  poles."  .?  M.  H.  S.  Procs., 
vol.  xii,  pp.   139-142. 


442  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

meeting  recommended  that  the  towns  of  the  province  should 
follow  the  example  of  Weymouth  and  facilitate  enforce- 
ment by  publishing  copies  of  the  Association  in  sufficient 
number  to  supply  every  head  of  family/ 

Most  of  the  towns  followed  the  advice  of  the  provincial 
congress,  and  did  not  go  to  the  trouble  of  appointing  special 
committees  of  observation  and  inspection;  for  they  had 
already  established  committees  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  now  superseded  by  the  Asso- 
ciation. Marshfield  presented  the  only  instance  of  a  deter- 
mination to  defeat  the  Association  by  town  action.  The 
citizens  of  that  town  had  won  for  themselves  the  privilege 
of  drinking  tea  and  killing  sheep  by  obtaining  the  presence 
of  a  detachment  of  British  troops;  and  on  February  20, 
1775,  a  town  meeting,  duly  licensed  by  Governor  Gage 
under  the  Massachusetts  Government  Act,  rejected  the  re- 
solves of  the  Continental  and  Provincial  Congresses  and  all 
other  illegal  assemblages.  A  minority  protest,  signed  later 
by  sixty-four  names,  made  the  most  of  a  bad  situation  by 
charging  trickery  and  misrepresentation.^  In  summing  up, 
it  would  appear  that  Massachusetts  was  well  equipped  with 
machinery  to  prevent  any  systematic  infringements  of  the 
Association., 

New  Hampshire  had  always  been  laggard  in  entering 
into  extra-legal  organization.  While  the  Continental  Con- 
gress was  yet  in  session,  organized  opposition  to  the  out- 
come of  the  Congress  was  begun  in  Hillsborough  County.* 

^Mass.  Spy,  Dec.  8, 1774;  also  Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1770-1777),  pp.  205-207. 

^  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Mch.  6,  13,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
1177-1178,  1249-1251. 

*  Twenty-three  inhabitants  of  Frances-Town  and  fifty-four  inhabi- 
tants of  New  Boston  signed  agreements  pledging  their  opposition  to  the 
unlawful  proceedings  of  men  who  pretended  to  maintain  the  very 
liberties  that  they  were  trampling  under  foot.     On  Nov.  7,  the  town 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


443 


However,  in  October,  the  fifty-two  voters  in  attendance  at 
a  town  meeting  at  Portsmouth  rescinded  the  action  of  fifty- 
six  voters  at  a  previous  meeting  against  furnishing  dona- 
tions to  stricken  Boston,  and  proceeded  to  appoint  a  "  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means  "  of  forty-five  members.  One- 
half  of  the  number  refused  to  act,  according  to  Governor 
Wentworth ;  but  when  news  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  reached  Portsmouth,  the  remainder  of 
the  committee  at  once  assumed  the  duties  of  supervising  the 
execution  of  the  Association.  Governor  Wentworth  re- 
ported on  December  2  that  the  measures  of  the  Continental 
Congress  were  "  received  implicitly  "  by  the  province.^  On 
the  same  day  as  his  letter,  the  provincial  committee,  which 
had  been  appointed  by  the  first  New  Hampshire  convention, 
called  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  for  a  general 
submission  to  the  Association.  In  the  subsequent  weeks, 
the  various  towns  began  to  establish  committees  of  inspec- 
tion.^ 

Since  the  Assembly  had  not  met  for  ten  months  past  and 
was  not  likely  to  sit  again  soon,  a  convention  of  the  province 
was  held  at  Exeter  on  January  25,  1775,  which  unanimously 
endorsed  the  Association.  In  an  address  to  the  province, 
the  inhabitants  were  exhorted  to  adhere  to  it  strictly  and  to 
support  their  committees  of  inspection.^     Just  how  many 

of  Hollis  in  the  same  county  adopted  similar  resolutions.  A\  H.  Gas., 
Nov.  18,  1774,  Feb.  10,  1775.  While  the  Continental  Congress  was 
still  sitting,  a  mob  at  Portsmouth  prevented  the  landing  of  a  shipment 
of  tea  but  permitted  the  payment  of  the  duty  on  it.  Ibid.,  Sept.  16, 
23,  1774;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  786-787. 

1  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  981-982,  1013. 

^The  organization  of  the  following  committees  was  noted  in  the 
newspapers :  in  December,  Exeter,  New  Market ;  in  January,  Parish  of 
Hawke,  Temple,  Kingstown,  Epsom,  Greenland.  At  Brentwood,  the 
committee  of  correspondence  took  over  the  duties  of  the  committee  of 
inspection  in  February. 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1180-1182. 


444 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


New  Hampshire  towns  finally  organized  committees  of  in- 
spection, it  is  impossible  to  say.  It  is  important  to  note,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  much  had  been  done  to  develop  a  public 
opinion  favorable  to  the  Association ;  and  on  the  other,  that 
the  chief  avenues  of  trade  with  the  world  were  well  guarded 
by  the  presence  of  the  "  Forty-Five  "  at  Portsmouth,  and 
by  a  network  of  committees  along  the  overland  routes 
through  Massachusetts. 

/  In  Rhode  Island,  the  first  official  action  appears  to  have 
been  taken  on  December  5,  1774;  when  the  General  Assem- 
bly voted  its  thanks  to  the  Continental  Congress  and  recom- 
mended the  selection  of  committees  of  inspection  to  the 
towns  of  the  provinces.^  Within  two  weeks  Newport  and 
Providence,  the  leading  ports,  had  acted  on  the  recommen- 
dation.^ It  would  appear  that  similar  action  was  taken  by 
the  smaller  towns. 

The  course  of  Connecticut  was  not  unlike  that  of  Rhode 
Island,  in  many  respects.  Early  in  November,  1774,  the 
Connecticut  General  Assembly  unanimously  approved  the 
proceedings  of  Congress  and  sent  orders  into  the  several 
towns  for  a  strict  compliance  therewith.^  The  action  of 
the  legislature  gained  immediate  attention;  and  by  the  end 
of  the  year  the  establishment  of  twenty-eight  committees 
had  been  noted  in  the  newspapers.*  Other  towns  acted 
later. 

^R.  I.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  vii,  p.  263. 
-- — *ihid.'r\o\.  vii,  pp.  284-285. 

^Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Nov.  14,  1774;  Hollister,  G.  H.,  History  of 
Connecticut  (Hartford,  1857),  vol.  ii,  p.  159. 

^  In  November,  the  ten  parishes  of  New  Haven  County;  Woodbury, 
Pomfret,  Waterbury,  Derby,  Milford,  Wallingford ;  in  December, 
Windham,  Saybrook,  Danbury,  Lebanon,  Guilford,  Simsbury,  New 
London,  Stratford,  Hartford,  Norwich,  Sharon,  Fairfield. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  445 

One  section  of  Connecticut,  represented  by  a  group  of  the 
smaller  towns  of  Fairfield  County  in  the  western  part  of 
the  province,  sought  to  prevent  the  acceptance  of  the  Asso- 
ciation. The  animus  appears  to  have  been  sectarian,  being 
one  phase  of  the  long-standing  antagonism  of  the  strong 
Episcopalian  element  in  these  towns  to  Congregationalist 
undertakings/  The  two  largest  towns  of  the  county,  Strat- 
ford and  Fairfield,  chose  committees  of  inspection  in  De- 
cember, and  the  town  of  Redding  took  similar  action  a  little 
later.  But  on  January  30,  1775,  a  town  meeting  at  Ridge- 
field  rejected  the  Association  with  only  three  dissenting 
votes  out  of  a  total  present  of  nearly  two  hundred,  and  de- 
nounced the  Congress  as  unconstitutional.^  A  large  meet- 
ing of  the  town  of  Newtown  rejected  the  Association  with 
but  one  dissenting  vote  a  week  later.  ^  These  defiant  reso- 
lutions emboldened  one  hundred  and  forty-one  inhabitants 
of  Redding  and  the  vicinity  to  denounce  and  forswear  all 
committees  in  a  written  statement ;  *  and  caused  the  town 
of  Danbur>'  to  revoke  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of 
inspection,  made  at  an  earlier  meeting,  and  to  refuse  to 
send  delegates  to  a  projected  county  convention.^  But  Dan- 
bury  underwent  another  change  of  heart,  for  when  the 
convention  of  Fairfield  County  assembled  on  February  14, 

^N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Feb.  16,  1775.  Vide  also  Gilbert,  G.  A.,  "The 
Connecticut  Loyalists,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  273-281.  One- 
third  of  the  people  of  Fairfield  County  were  Episcopalians.  Beards- 
ley,  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Conn.  (Boston,  1865),  vol.  i, 
p.  289. 

*N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Feb.  2,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1202-1203. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1215;  also  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Feb.  23,  1775. 

*  Ibid.,  Feb.  23,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1258-1260.  One 
hundred  and  twenty  men  signed  similar  resolves  at  New  Milford,  a  town 
in  Litchfield  County  across  the  Housatonic  from  Fairfield  County. 
Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1270;  also  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Mch.  16. 

^  Ibid..  Feb.  23,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1038-1039,  1215-T216. 


446  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Ridgefield  and  Newtown  were  the  only  towns  not  repre- 
sented. 

Now  began  a  series  of  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  radicals 
to  discredit  and  defeat  these  opponents  of  the  Association. 
The  county  convention  denounced  a  selectman  of  Newtown 
who  had  sold  some  copies  of  the  Association  for  a  pint  of 
flip,  and  called  upon  those  citizens  of  Ridgefield  and  New- 
town, who  were  attached  to  their  country,  to  stand  forth 
and  affix  their  signatures  to  the  measures  of  Congress,  so 
that  all  commerce  and  connection  might  be  withdrawn  f  rem 
the  other  inhabitants  of  the  towns. ^  In  view  of  the  ap- 
proaching session  of  the  Assembly  at  New  Haven,  the  town 
meeting  at  the  capital  resolved  unanimously  that  no  person 
should  entertain  the  deputies  who  were  expected  from  the 
delinquent  towns. ^  The  Connecticut  Assembly,  when  it 
met  in  March,  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate  condi- 
tions in  the  two  towns  and  to  determine  how  far  any  per- 
sons holding  provincial  commissions  were  concerned  in 
promoting  resolutions  in  direct  opposition  of  the  repeated 
resolves  of  the  legislature.^  The  dissentients  at  Redding 
were  held  up  for  public  neglect  by  the  committee  of  obser- 
vation of  that  town.* 

These  tactics  of  the  radicals  brought  only  partial  results.* 
On  March  20,  fifty-five  inhabitants  of  Ridgefield  accepted 
the  invitation  of  the  county  convention  and  pledged  them- 
selves to  the  Continental  Association.  By  April  12,  seventy 
inhabitants  of  Newtown  had  signed  a  statement  disowning 
the  action  of  the  town  meeting.  Finally,  in  December, 
1775,  Ridgefield  appointed  a  committee  of  inspection  and 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1236-1238;  also  A^  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  22,  177S- 
'  CoJin.  Cour..  Mch.  6,  1775;  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  Mch.  13. 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  107. 

*  Ihid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1259-1260;  also  .V.  Y.  Journ.,  Apr.  20,  1775. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1238-1239;  vol.  ii,  p.  1135. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


447 


fell  heartily  into  line.  The  town  of  Newtown  remained 
obdurate  with  respect  to  the  Association,  although  the 
selectmen  and  principal  inhabitants  were  prevailed  upon  to 
give  bond  not  to  take  up  arms  against  the  colonies.  An 
active  loyalist  sympathizer  was  able  to  write  as  late  as 
October,  1781,  that  "Newtown  and  the  Church-of -England 
part  of  Redding  were,  he  believed,  the  only  parts  of  New 
England  that  had  refused  to  comply  with  the  doings  of 
Congress."  ^  /But  so  far  as  Connecticut  as  a  whole  was 
concerned,  the  province  was  exceedingly  well  organized  to 
supervise  the  enforcement  of  the  Association^  Ridgefield 
and  Newtown  were,  after  all,  small  inland  towns  and  of  no 
importance  commercially. 

In  New  York  the  movement  for  establishing  committees 
of  observation  and  inspection  displayed  many  of  the  ear- 
marks of  the  earlier  contests  between  moderate  and  radical. 
But  there  were  some  significant  differences.  Thus,  the 
measures  adopted  by  the  Continental  Congress  contained, 
by  implication,  a  sanction  of  the  radical  party  in  New  York 
city,  hitherto  discredited  and  outgeneraled  by  the  moder- 
ates.' It  remained  tol)e4)roved  whether  the  radicals  could 
realize  on  this  asset.  /The  leading  radical  organization,  the 
Committee  of  Mechanics,  took  an  early  occasion  to  transmit 
their  thanks  to  the  New  York  delegates  for  the  "  wise, 
prudent  and  spirited  measures  "  of  the  Congress — meas- 
ures which  they  well  knew  had  been  adopted  against  the 
best  judgment  of  these  very  delegates.^ 

'  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  iv,  p.  279  and  a. 

^  "  Behold  the  wretched  state  to  which  we  are  reduced,"  wrote  Wil- 
kins  in  Alarm  to  the  Legislature,  "A  foreign  power  is  brought  in  to 
govern  this  province.  Laws  made  at  Philadelphia,  by  factious  men 
from  New-England,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania.  Maryland,  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas,  are  imposed  upon  us  by  the  most  imperious  menaces." 

^  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Nov.  24,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  987. 


t 


448  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

The  moderates  found  themselves  in  something  of  a 
dilemma :  either  they  must  oppose  the  united  voice  of  the 
continent  as  embodied  in  the  Congress  and  thus  list  them- 
selves with  the  office-holding  gentry,  or  they  must  perpet- 
uate their  ascendancy  in  the  extra-legal  movement  and  thus 
keep  a  controlling  hand  in  the  enforcement  of  the  Associa- 
tion. The  academic  minds  of  the  party  chose  the  logical 
course;  and  important  members  of  the  community,  like  the 
Reverend  Samuel  Seabury,  the  Reverend  Miles  Cooper,  the 
Reverend  Charles  Inglis  and  the  Reverend  Thomas  Chand- 
ler, denounced  the  Congress  and  all  its  doings,  and  became 
"  loyalists,"  or  "  Tories."  But  the  men  of  practical  affairs, 
of  large  business  connections  and  of  political  experience, 
did  not  dare  to  follow  their  lead,  for  they  had  too  much  at 
stake.  "  The  Merchants,"  wrote  Colden  on  November  2, 
1774,  "  are  at  present  endeavouring  to  sift  out  each  others 
Sentiments  upon  the  Association  proposed  by  the  Congress. 
A  certain  sign.  I  take  it.  that  they  wish  to  avoid  it."  ^ 
Eventually  they  accepted  the  necessities  of  their  situation 
and  determined  to  make  a  fight  for  the  control  of  affairs, 
resendng  for  a  future  contingency  their  exit  from  the 
movement.'  Thus,  Isaac  Low  continued  to  exert  his  influ- 
ence as  head  of  the  "  Fifty-One,"  and  served  as  chairman 
of  the  later  committees  of  Sixty  and  One  Hundred:  but. 
aware  that  his  influence  was  waning,  he  refused  to  partici- 
pate in  the  provincial  convention  in  the  latter  part  of  April, 
and  likewise  eliminated  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Second  Continental  Congress. 

*<^he  old  committee  of  "  Fifty-One,"  the  bulwark  of  the 
mercantile  interests,  made  the  first  move  with  reference  to 
the    Association.      Expressing  no   intention   of   dissolving 

*  Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  pp.  369-370- 

*  Vide  ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  372. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  449 

their  present  organization,  they  issued  a  call  for  ward  meet- 
ings of  the  freemen  and  freeholders  for  the  purpose  of 
electing  a  committee  of  inspection  for  each  ward/  It  is 
clear  that  the  "  Fifty-One  "  intended  to  supervise  the  ward 
committees  and  to  keep  a  close  rein  on  affairs  generally. 
This  plan  met  with  the  resolute  disapproval  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Mechanics,  and,  fearing  to  brook  their  opposition 
in  the  changed  face  of  public  affairs,  the  "  Fifty-One  "  re- 
quested a  conference  with  them  on  the  subject.  The  out- 
come of  the  conference  was  a  virtual  defeat  for  the  mer- 
chants and  the  adoption  of  a  plan  that  was  in  entire  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  the  Association.  The  "Fifty-One" 
were  to  be  dissolved;  instead  of  ward  committees,  there 
should  be  one  general  committee  of  inspection;  the  "  Fifty- 
One  "  and  the  Committee  of  Mechanics  should  exchange 
one  hundred  names,  out  of  which  the  new  committee  should 
be  nominated."  Furthermore,  the  election  was  to  be  held 
at  the  city  hall,  where,  because  of  the  crowd,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  restrict  the  vote  to  freemen  and  freeholders. 
On  November  22  this  plan  was  duly  carried  out,  and  a  com- 
mittee of  sixty  was  chosen,  although,  according  to  Colden's 
account,  only  thirty  or  forty  citizens  were  present.^ 

The  outcome  of  the  election  was  a  victory  for  the  rad- 
icals. The  Committee  of  Sixty  was  essentially  radical  in 
character  although  all  varieties  of  opinion  were  represented 
and    the   merchant,    Isaac   Low.    continued    as   chairmanX 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  328-329,  967. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  330.  The  Committee  of  Mechanics  continued  in 
existence. 

'  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  372. 

*  Professor  Becker's  analysis  of  the  Sixty  is  as  follows :  29  members 
of  the  original  Fifty-One  found  places  on  the  Sixty,  and  of  these  21 
gave  active  or  passive  support  to  the  War  for  Independence.  Of  the 
rejected  members  of  the  Fifty-One,  17  of  the  22  became  loyalists  or 
neutrals  with  loyalist  sympathies.     The  31   members  of  the  Sixty  who 


450 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 


With  such  zealots  in  the  saddle  as  Sears  and  McDougall, 
no  merchant  of  insight  could  longer  hope  that  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  Association  would  be  merely  nominal.  "Anti- 
Tyrannicus  "  might  well  lament  after  four  months  of  the 
rule  of  the  Sixty :  "  While  the  late  Committee  of  Fifty-One 
acted  as  a  Committee  of  Correspondence  for  this  City,  the 
generality  of  its  inhabitants,  particularly  the  most  sensible 
and  judicious  part  of  them,  were  happy  in  reposing  the 
trust  with  so  respectable  a  body,  composed  as  it  was  of  the 
principal  citizens;  but  when  the  present  Committee  was 
formed  out  of  the  ruins,  as  I  may  say,  of  the  old  Commit- 
tee, was  there  a  cool  considerate  man  among  us,  who  did 
not  forbode  evil?"  ^ 

Early  in  November  the  "  Fifty-One  "  had  sent  a  circular 
letter  to  the  rural  counties  recommending  the  appointment 
of  committees  of  inspection  pursuant  to  the  Association.^ 
Enthusiastic  response  could  hardly  be  expected  in  view  of 
the  lassitude  exhibited  at  the  time  of  the  election  of  dele- 
gates to  Congress ;  and  there  was  even  a  possibility  that  the 
moderate  elements  would  become  active  and  defeat  the 
plans  of  aggressive  radical  minorities.  Actually  the  results 
were  much  the  same  as  on  the  earlier  occasion.  Only  three 
of  the  thirteen  rural  counties  gave  the  Association  a  favor- 
able reception  at  this  early  time — Suffolk,  comprising  cen- 
tral and  eastern  Long  Island ;  and  on  the  mainland,  the 
adjoining  counties  of  Ulster  and  Albany.  The  most  radical 
action  was  taken  by  Suffolk  County.  On  November  15,  the 
county  committee  of  correspondence  voted  a  full  approval 

were  not  members  of  the  Fifty-One  included  about  ten  who  became 
active  radicals  and  not  more  than  five  or  six  loyalists.  A^.  Y.  Parties, 
1760-1776,  pp.   167-168. 

^N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Mch.  23.  1775. 

'4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  329.  Professor  Becker  has  assembled  all  the 
facts  in  the  discussion  that  follows  in  op.  cit.,  pp.  169-173,  187. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


451 


of  the  Association  and  recommended  it  to  the  several  towns 
to  see  that  its  provisions  were  executed.  Within  two  months 
most  of  the  towns  and  districts  of  the  county  had  taken 
favorable  action/  Next  to  Suffolk,  the  Association  gained 
widest  support  in  Ulster  County,  where  a  joint  meeting  of 
the  freeholders  of  five  towns  recommended  the  appointment 
of  committees  on  January  6,  1775.  In  the  subsequent 
months  such  action  was  taken  by  five  or  more  towns.^  In 
Albany  County,  the  county  committee  of  correspondence 
endorsed  the  Association,  with  some  misgivings,  on  Decem- 
ber 10,  1774,  and  effected  a  reorganization  of  the  commit- 
tee, by  which  the  three  city  wards  and  the  rural  precincts 
were  given  representation.  The  action  of  endorsement  met 
with  no  public  expostulation,  except  from  a  meeting  in 
King's  district  under  the  leadership  of  five  of  the  king's 
justices. 

The  contest  over  the  acceptance  of  the  Association  was 
sharp  in  Queens  and  Tryon  Counties  and  the  outcome  was 
a  partial  and  barren  victory  for  the  radicals.  Committees 
of  inspection  were  appointed  in  the  former  county  at 
Jamaica  and  Newtown,  but  the  action  was  quickly  repu- 
diated by  numbers  of  inhabitants.  At  Flushing  in  the  same 
county,  it  would  appear  that  about  one-seventh  of  the  free- 
holders, having  come  together  at  a  funeral,  appointed  the 
committee.  At  Oyster  Bay,  a  meeting  called  for  that  par- 
ticular purpose  adjourned  without  action.  In  Tryon  County 
the  radicals  succeeded  in  appointing  committees  in  only 
four  districts."  In  the  eight  remaining  counties  the  Asso- 
ciation   was    either    disowned,    ignored,    or    combated    by 

'  Among  them  were  Huntington.  Smithtown,  Islip  and  Southhaven. 
Because  of  opposition,  Brookhaven  did  not  appoint  a  committee  of 
inspection  until  June  8,  1775. 

'  Shavvangunk,  Hanover.  Wallkill.  New  Windsor  and  Kingston. 

*  Palatine,  Canajoharie.  German  Flatts  and  l\Ioliawk. 


452 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


means  of  loyalist  associations  which  asserted  the  "  un- 
doubted right  to  liberty  in  eating,  drinking,  buying,  sell- 
ing" etc.^ 

<The  rather  general  disapprobation  which  the  Association 
met  outside  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York  made 
some  form  of  provincial  endorsement  extremely  important ; 
and  a  determined  effort  was  put  forth  to  secure  the  sanction 
of  the  Assembly>-.  This  Assembly,  which  came  together  on 
January  lo,  1775,  had  been  in  existence  since  1769;  and 
although  it  had  passed  a  vote  in  the  earlier  year  approving 
the  non-importation  regulations  which  the  merchants  them- 
selves had  established,  the  body  was  not  likely  to  prove  re- 
sponsive to  the  altered  condition  of  public  affairs  in  1775.^ 
Nevertheless  the  game  was  sufficiently  uncertain  to  warrant 
a  trial  by  the  radicals.^  On  January  26  an  initial  attempt 
was  made  to  get  the  Assembly  to  pass  judgment  on  the 
Continental  Congress,  but  through  a  resort  to  the  previous 
question  the  matter  was  stopped  by  a  vote  of  eleven  to  ten. 
The  loyalist  speakers  pointed  out  that  Congress  was  seek- 
ing to  wield  powers  properly  belonging  to  a  legislature, 
and  charged  openly  that  the  New  York  delegates  in  Con- 
gress  had  opposed   the  proceedings.*     In   the   subsequent 

'  Quoted  from  the  Dutchess  County  Association ;  A^.  Y.  Gazetteer, 
Feb.  9,  1775.  A  committee,  appointed  at  White  Plains  in  Westchester 
County,  was  repudiated  by  45  freeholders. 

'  Mass.  Spy,  Feb.  16,  1775 ;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1191. 

*  Colden  himself  entertained  doubts  as  to  the  course  that  the  Assembly 
would  take.    Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  378. 

*4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1189-1191,  1286-1287;  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls., 
vol.  ii,  pp.  193-194;  Brush's  speech  in  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Mch.  2,  1775. 
"  Worthy  old  Silver  Locks,"  when  he  learned  of  the  vote  of  the  As- 
sembly, "  cried  out — (Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace."  A  moderate's  letter  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Feb.  6,  1775. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  Colden  was  in  charge  of  the  New  York  govern- 
ment at  the  three  most  trying  times  during  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment:  the  Stamp  Act,  the  tea  episode,  and  the  period  of  the  First 
Continental  Congress. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


453 


four  weeks,  as  tardy  members  made  their  appearance,  three 
more  attempts  were  made  to  commit  the  Assembly  in  the 
matter,  but  all  to  no  purpose.^  These  defeats  convinced  the 
radicals  that  they  could  hope  for  nothing  from  the  Assem- 
bly, and  they  proceeded  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  undo  the 
damage  which  the  course  of  the  Assembly  had  wrought  the 
cause. 

One  spirited  article,  circulated  in  the  newspapers,  anal- 
yzed the  personnel  of  the  New  York  government,  and  pur- 
ported to  show"  that  most  of  the  members  of  the  Council 
and  Assembly  either  themselves  had  access  to  the  public 
crib  through  lucrative  contracts  or  well-paid  positions,  or 
else  were  related  to  those  who  did."  A  report,  originating 
in  London,  was  given  publicity,  to  the  effect  that  several 
members  of  the  majority  in  the  Assembly  had  received 
bribes  of  £1000  for  their  votes,  and  that  large  land  grants, 
pensions  and  high  offices  were  to  be  rewards  for  the  leaders 
of  the  majority."  It  is  possible  that  the  radicals  would 
now  have  followed  the  example  of  Massachusetts,  New 
Hampshire  and  other  provinces  and  sought  an  endorsement 
of  the  Association  at  the  hands  of  a  provincial  convention.* 
But  much  valuable  time  had  been  lost  in  the  futile  efforts 
with  the  Assembly;  and,  furthermore,  means  had  been 
found  of  rendering  the  Association  effectual  without  such 

'  On  Feb.  17,  a  motion  to  thank  the  New  York  delegates  for  their 
services  was  lost,  15  to  9.  On  Feb.  21,  a  motion  to  thank  the  mer- 
chants and  inhabitants  of  the  province  for  their  adherence  to  the 
Association  was  defeated.  15  to  10.  On  Feb.  23,  a  motion  to  appoint 
delegates  to  the  next  Continental  Congress  was  rejected,  17  to  9. 
4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  pp.  12S9-1297. 

*  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  22,  1775;  also  Conn.  Cour.,  Apr.  10. 

'The  identity  of  the  members  was  but  thinly  disguised  in  most  in- 
stances.    Pa.  Journ.,  May  17,   177S- 

*  A  letter  from  the  South  Carolina  General  Committee,  dated  Mch.  i, 
1775,  urged  this  course  on  New  York.  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Apr,  6,  1775;  also 
4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-3. 


454 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


sanction/  When,  therefore,  the  radicals  reached  the  de- 
cision of  calHng  a  provincial  convention,  it  was  only  with  a 
view  to  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  impending  Second 
Continental  Congress. 

Fortunately  for  the  administration  of  the  Association, 
the  negative  attitude  of  the  Assembly  and  the  absence  of 
committees  of  inspection  in  most  of  the  rural  parts  were 
matters  of  no  essential  importance.  New  York  city  was 
the  entrepot  of  commerce  for  the  entire  province,  as  well  as 
for  portions  of  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey;  and  as  long 
as  this  portal  was  well  guarded,  no  serious  violations  of  the 
Association  could  occur.  The  Committee  of  Sixty,  sta- 
tioned there,  was  clearly  of  radical  complexion ;  and  its 
successor,  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  elected  upon  the 
receipt  of  the  news  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  was  even 
more  largely  so.  On  its  roll  were  many  members  of  the 
old  Sixty :  and  among  the  new  members  were  such  unmiti- 
gated radicals  as  John  Morin  Scott,  John  Lamb,  and  Daniel 
Dunscomb.  long  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Mechanics.^ 

^  Golden  wrote  to  Dartmouth  on  May  3,  1775  that,  from  the  time  the 
Assembly  deviated  from  the  general  association  of  the  colonies,  "  a 
Design  was  evidently  form'd  in  the  other  Colonies  to  drive  the  People 
Here  from  acquiescing  in  the  Measures  of  the  Assembly,  &  to  force 
them  into  the  General  Plan  of  x\ssociation  &  Resistance.  This  Design 
was  heartily  seconded  by  many  among  ourselves.  Every  species  of 
public  and  private  Resentment  was  threatened  to  terrify  the  Inhabi- 
tants of  this  Province  if  they  continued  Disunited  from  the  others. 
The  certainty  of  looseing  all  the  Debts  due  from  the  other  Colonies, 
which  are  very  considerable,  and  every  other  Argument  of  private 
Interest  that  could  Influence  the  Merchants,  or  any  one,  was  indus- 
triously circulated."    Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  401. 

*  After  making  a  careful  analysis  of  the  new  committee  and  its  most 
active  members.  Professor  Becker  concludes :  "  it  is  clear  that  the  com- 
mittee of  One  Hundred  .  .  .  was  largely  dominated  by  those  who  had 
directed  the  Sixty,  assisted  by  newly  elected  radicals;  whatever  it  rep- 
resented ostensibly,  it  was  in  fact  the  organ  of  that  conservative- 
radical  combination  which  was  destined  to  inaugurate  the  revolution 
and  achieve  independence."     Op.  cit.,  pp.  197-190. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  455 

Unless  some  nearby  harbors  in  New  Jersey  should  furnish 
opportunity  for  evasion,  the  province  was  pretty  effectually 
sealed.  The  people  of  Jersey,  however,  as  we  shall  see, 
were  definitely  committed  to  the  Continental  Association. 

The  movement  for  ratifying  the  Association  in  New 
Jersey  got  under  way  early  in  December,  1774.  when  the 
three  precincts  of  Essex  County  obser\'ed  the  directions  of 
Article  xi  and  appointed  committees  of  observation.^  The 
movement  spread  rapidly,  and  the  example  of  Essex  County 
in  establishing  committees  of  inspection  in  the  local  sub- 
divisions was  widely  copied.  By  February  i,  1775.  com- 
mittees of  observation  and  inspection  had  been  appointed  in 
eight  of  the  thirteen  counties : "  and  at  least  two  other  coun- 
ties acted  shortly  after.  ^  Every  populous  county,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Salem,  was  now  organized  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  Association.  No  public  opposition  of 
any  importance  appeared  against  the  establishment  of  com- 
mittees.* With  such  a  broad  basis  of  popular  support,  it 
was  not  surprising  that  the  Assembly  of  the  province  voted 
approval  of  the  proceedings  of  Congress  on  January  24. 
I775-' 

^  Elizabeth,  Newark  and  Acquackanonck.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  1009- 
loio,  1012-1013,  1028;  N.  Y.  Gas.,  Dec.  26,  1774. 

*  Other  than  Essex,  these  counties  were  in  chronological  order :  Muri- 
mouth,  Gloucester.  Somerset,  Cumberland.  Middlcse.v,  Hunterdon,  and 
Morris.  The  italicization  indicates  the  counties  in  which  township 
committees  of  inspection  were  organized.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  35; 
Pa.  Gas.,  Dec.  21.  1774;  N.  Y.  Gas..  Dec.  26;  Pa.  Packet.  Jan.  19,  1775; 
4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1083-1084,  1163-1164,  1106. 

'  BurHngton  and  Bergen;  ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1235-1236;  vol.  ii,  p.  579. 

*  For  two  instances,  however,  vide  ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1165;  vol.  ii,  pp. 
130-131- 

"  An  appearance  of  unanimity  was  given  to  this  vote  through  the 
skilful  manipulation  of  "  the  Junto  at  Elizabeth  Town,"  i.  e.,  William 
Livingston,  John  DeHart  and  Elias  Boudinot.     i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x, 


456 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


The  fact  that  Philadelphia  had  been  the  scene  of  the 
transactions  of  the  Continental  Congress  gave  decided  im- 
petus to  the  movement  for  ratification  of  the  Association 
throughout  Pennsylvania.  In  the  city  the  chief  source  of 
opposition  was  the  group  of  wealthy  Quaker  merchants, 
who  controlled  the  policy  of  the  sect  to  which  they  be- 
longed. Galloway,  outwitted  in  his  first  attempt  to  play 
politics  on  a  continental  scale,  was  seeking  balm  for  his 
wounded  sensibilities  in  the  company  of  congenial  spirits 
in  the  city  and  in  New  York;  and  he  did  not  appear  in 
public  denunciation  of  Congress  until  after  the  radicals  had 
firmly  established  their  organization  in  Pennsylvania. 

The  existing  Committee  of  Forty-Three  at  Philadelphia, 
representing  city  and  county,  had  never  been  entirely  satis- 
factory to  the  ultra-radicals;  it  had  been  accepted  by  them 
simply  as  the  best  committee  that  could  be  obtained  under 
the  circumstances  then  prevailing.  Even  before  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  had  begun  its  sessions,  appeals  had  ap- 
peared in  the  press,  emanating  avowedly  from  the  laboring 
class,  demanding  the  appointment  of  a  new  committee.^ 
As  the  Continental  Association  pointed  to  the  selection  of 
a  new  committee,  the  radicals  at  once  made  known  their 
opinion  that  separate  committees  should  be  chosen  for  the 
city  and  for  the  county.  Their  purpose  evidently  was  to 
preclude  the  possibility  of  the  city  moderates  dominating 
the  action  of  the  county,  as  they  had  done  to  a  certain  de- 

PP-  537,  575-577-  The  Quaker  members  of  the  Assembly  made  an 
exception  to  "  such  parts  [of  the  proceedings  of  Congress]  as  seem 
to  wear  an  appearance,  or  may  have  a  tendency  to  force  (if  any  such 
there  be)  as  inconsistent  with  their  religious  principles."  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  i,  p.  1 124.  It  would  appear,  however,  that  this  saving  clause  was 
removed  on  Jan.  25.  Vide  ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1287;  ^  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol. 
X.  p.  546. 

^  "An  Artisan"  in  Pa.  Ga.c..  Aug.  31,  1774;  "A  Mechanic"  in  Pa. 
Packet,  Sept.  5. 


RATIFICATIOX  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


457 


gree  in  the  election  of  the  Forty-Three;  but  they  tactfully 
based  their  objections  on  the  ground  of  convenience  and 
greater  effectiveness  of  action/  They  also  demanded,  in 
curious  contrast  to  their  New  York  brethren,  that  the  elec- 
tion be  held  by  ballot,  for  the  reason,  it  would  appear,  that 
the  voters  could  thus  be  best  protected  from  the  "  undue 
influence  "  and  "  electioneering  attempts  "  of  the  citizens 
of  wealth  and  position." 

The  Forty-Three  had  already  sent  out  a  call  for  a  public 
meeting  on  Saturday,  November  12,  1774,  to  elect  a  joint 
committee  for  city  and  county.^  On  Monday  of  that  week, 
a  mass  meeting,  summoned  without  authority  of  the  Forty- 
Three,  came  together  at  the  state  house,  and  resolved  by 
unanimous  vote  that  the  election  should  be  held  in  the  sev- 
eral wards  by  ballot  of  those  who  could  vote  for  represen- 
tatives in  the  Assembly,  and  that  the  city  and  its  suburbs 
should  elect  a  committee  of  sixty  separate  from  the  county.* 
The  plan  adopted  by  this  meeting,  unauthorized  though  it 
was,  prevailed.  Separate  tickets  of  names  for  membership 
in  the  city  committee  were  made  out  by  the  two  parties, 
and  these  were  printed  and  distributed  for  electioneering 
purposes.  On  election  day  the  list  of  sixty  names  submitted 
by  the  radicals  won  by  a  great  majority.^  At  the  particular 
request  of  the  freeholders  of  two  suburban  districts,  addi- 

*  Pa.  Gaz.,  Xov.  2,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  956-957- 
* "  Cassandra,"  a  radical,  in  Pa.  Gas.,  Mch.  20,  1776. 

'  Ibid.,  Nov.  2,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  956. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  965-967;  also  Pa.  Gas.,  Nov.  9,  1774. 

*  It  is  evident  that  only  a  small  minority  of  all  the  citizens  partici- 
pated in  the  voting.  517  votes  in  all  were  cast  in  the  city  and  the 
Northern  Liberties :  and  of  these,  499  were  for  the  radical  ticket,  with 
very  few  exceptions  to  any  one  name.  "  Tiberius "  in  Pa.  Ledger, 
Mch.  16,  1776.  Not  one-sixth  of  the  people  voted,  according  to  a 
Philadelphia  writer  in  the  N.  Y.  Gazetteer.  Feb.  23,  1775. 


458  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

tional  members  were  included  in  the  committee,  making  the 
total  number  sixt3^-six/ 

The  radical  character  of  the  Sixty-Six  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that,  in  the  election  of  the  two  committees  that  in 
turn  succeeded  to  the  functions  of  this  committee,  few  alter- 
ations were  made  in  the  personnel.  The  Sixty-Six  in- 
cluded only  seventeen  members  of  the  old  Forty-Three: 
and  these  were,  for  the  most  part,  men  of  the  more  radical 
stamp,  like  Dickinson,  Thomas  Mifilin.  Joseph  Reed  and 
Charles  Thomson.  Thomas  Wharton  and  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Smith  were  dropped  permanently  from  committee  rolls. 
Of  the  new  men  on  the  Sixty-Six,  William  Bradford,  editor 
of  the  radical  Pennsylvania  Journal,  was  the  best  known. 
The  others  were,  for  the  greater  part,  small  tradesmen, 
mechanics,  and  nobodies  wdio  had  been  active  in  popular 
demonstrations  in  earlier  years.  Tt  is  not  necessar}-  to 
accept  literally  the  scornful  comment  of  a  contemporary 
that  "  there  are  many  of  this  Committee  who  could  not 
get  credit  for  20s. ;"  and  it  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impos- 
sible, to  verify  his  further  statement  that  one  of  the  Sixty- 
Six,  "  an  avowed  Republican,  had  lately  met  with  some  dis- 
appointments .  .  .  ;  another  had  acquired  his  fortune  partly 
by  an  illicit  trade  last  war,  and  partly  by  taking  advantage 
of  a  Resolve  of  the  people  here,  not  to  deal  with  the  Rhode- 
Islanders,  after  the}^  had  broke  through  the  Non-Importa- 
tion Agreement,  by  supplying  them  with  Goods,  when  no 
other  Ivlerchant  would  do  it ;  another  was  an  illiterate  Mer- 
chant; another  too  insignificant  to  notice,  &c."  ^ 

The  counties  of  the  province  quickly  emulated  the  ex- 

*  The  names  of  the  original  sixty  and  of  the  four  members  from 
Southwark  are  in  Pa.  Gas.,  Nov.  16,  1774;  the  names  of  the  two  from 
Kensington  are  in  ibid...  Nov.  23.  Lincoln  states  that  the  committee 
was  composed  of  sixty-seven.    Rev'y  Movement  in  Pa.,  p.  185. 

■■'  N.  Y.  Gazetteer.  Feb.  23.  1775 :  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1232. 


RATIFICATION  QF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


459 


ample  of  Philadelphia  in  preparing  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  Association.  In  Philadelphia  County,  committees  were 
first  selected  for  each  township;  and  at  a  meeting  of  these 
committees  on  November  26  a  general  committee  of  forty 
was  named. ^  By  the  middle  of  February  seven  other 
counties  had  chosen  committees  of  inspection ;  -  and  the 
committee  of  correspondence  of  another  county  had  as- 
sumed the  function  of  executing  the  Association.®  There 
is  no  record  of  action  in  the  case  of  the  two  sparsely  settled 
frontier  counties  of  Northumberland  and  Westmoreland. 
/Ratification  of  the  Continental  Association  was  easily 
carried  in  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly.  That  body  had 
held  its  first  session  while  the  Continental  Congress  was 
still  in  session ;  and  its  first  act  had  been  to  elect  a  successor 
to  Joseph  Galloway,  who  had  been  speaker  for  so  many 
years.  The  second  session  began  on  December  5,  and  on 
the  tenth  the  proceedings  of  Congress  were  approved  by  a 
unanimous  vote^  Three  days  later,  Galloway  made  his 
first  appearance  in  this  Assembly.  During  the  remainder 
of  the  session  and  in  the  February  session  he  proceeded 
quietly  and  indefatigably  to  work  up  sentiment  among  the 
members  in  opposition  to  the  measures  of  Congress,  and 
he  gained  an  increasingly  large  following.  But  he  was 
laboring  against  heavy  odds :  and  the  excitement,  produced 
by  the  acceleration  of  public  events,  contributed  in  defeat- 

'  This  committee  contained  three  members  of  the  old  Committee  of 
Forty-Three.    Pa.  Gas.,  Nov.  16,  30,  1774. 

^  In  chronological  order :  Berks,  Bucks.  York,  Chester.  Northampton. 
Cumberland  and  Lancaster.  Vide  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  passim,  and 
contemporary  newspapers.  Galloway  wrote  from  his  country  seat  in 
Bucks  County :  "A  Committee  has  been  appointed  for  this  County  by 
a  few  warm  People  of  neither  Property  or  significance  among  us." 
Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxi,  p.  478. 

^  Bedford;  4  Am.  .4rch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1226-1227,  1229-1230. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  869,  1023 :  Lincoln,  op.  rit..  p.  185. 


460  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ing  his  efforts.^  ^l^^eanwhile  the  Sixty-Six  at  Philadelphia, 
feeling  that  the  time  had  come  for  frankly  discarding  the 
leadership  of  the  Assembly,  had  called  into  being  a  second 
provincial  convention.  When  that  body  assembled  on  Jan- 
uary 23,  1775,  it  immediately  adopted  a  unanimous  resolu- 
tion endorsing  the  Continental  Association  and  pledging 
obedience  to  its  provisions.^  \ 

In  general,  the  situation  in  Pennsylvania  was  extremel)"- 
favorable  for  a  close  observance  of  the  Association.  With 
the  only  port  of  entry  w^ell  guarded,  the  chief  source  of 
danger  lay  in  the  course  which  the  Quaker  merchants  might 
choose  to  pursue. 

There  was  nothing  distinctive  about  the  movement  to 
ratify  the  Association  in  the  Delaware  Counties.  On  No- 
vember 28,  1774,  a  committee  of  inspection  was  chosen  in 
Newcastle  County.  Kent  County  followed  this  example  on 
December  7.  Apparently  no  committee  was  chosen  at  this 
early  stage  in  Sussex  County,  where  the  preponderance  of 
Episcopalians  made  it  more  difficult  for  the  radicals  to 
carry  their  objects.^  At  the  first  session  of  the  House  of 
Assembly  following  the  dissolution  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, several  unanimous  resolves  were  passed  on  March 
i5»  ^77 5>  expressing  high  approval  of  the  proceedings  of 
Congress.* 

Of  the  plantation  group,  the  earliest  action  was  taken  by 

^  For  Galloway's  account  of  the  sharp  politics  of  this  unavailing 
struggle,  vide  his  letters  to  Governor  Franklin,  i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x, 
pp.  572-575,  579-586;  his  A  Reply  to  the  Observations  of  Lieutenant 
General  Sir  William  Howe,  etc.,  pp.  127-128;  and  his  letters  to  Ver- 
planck,  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xxi,  pp.  477-484. 

'  Pa.  Gas.,  Dec.  28,  1774,  Feb.  i,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1169. 

'Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  x,  pp.  81-82. 

*N.  Y.  Gas.,  Mch.  27,  1775;  also  4  An:,  .irch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  126-127. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  46 1 

Maryland.  The  counties  in  which  Annapohs  and  Baltimore 
were  located  took  the  lead;  and  by  the  end  of  November 
committees  had  been  chosen  in, six  of  the  sixteen  counties/ 
</X)n  the  twenty-first  of  the  'month  a  provincial  convention 
had  assembled  at  Annapolis,  but  because  of  the  shortness 
of  the  notice  several  counties  were  not  represented.  Before 
adjourning,  the  convention  voted  unanimous  approval  of 
the  proceedings  of  Congress  and  recommended  to  the  people 
of  IMaryland  an  inviolable  obedience  to  the  Association. 
The  convention  renewed  its  vote  at  a  full  meeting  on  De- 
cember 8-12."  ,  Under  stimulus  of  these  provincial  meet- 
ings, a  committee  of  observation  was  chosen  in  St.  Mary's 
County,  and  several  of  the  old  committees  were  enlarged  so 
as  to  afford  a  broader  representation.^  In  the  counties  that 
failed  to  appoint  committees,  it  would  appear  that  the  ex- 
isting committees  of  correspondence  took  over  the  new 
functions.  The  province  proved  to  be  adequately  organ- 
ized to  execute  the  Association. 

In  the  neighboring  province  of  Virginia,  committees  of 
observation  were  chosen  with  almost  clocklike  precision. 
Five  counties  acted  in  November;  eleven  counties  and  the 
town  of  Williamsburg  in  December;  five  counties  in  Jan- 
uary; and  at  least  four  others  in  the  subsequent  months.* 

^  In  chronological  order :  Anne  Arundel,  Baltimore,  Calvert,  Charles, 
Frederick,  Prince  George's.     Consult  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  index. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  991,  1031  ;  also  Md.  Gas.,  Dec.  i,  15.  1774. 

'  The  size  of  committees  was  increased  in  Baltimore,  Anne  Arundel, 
Frederick,  Charles  and  Prince  George's.  Consult  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol. 
i,   index. 

*  In  November,  Henrico.  Elizabeth  City,  Warwick,  Chesterfield  and 
James  City ;  in  December,  Richmond,  Essex,  Isle  of  Wight,  Princess 
Anne,  Caroline,  Prince  William,  King  and  Queen,  Northampton,  Charles 
City,  Orange,  Williamsburg,  Accomack;  in  January,  Charlotte,  Prince 
George's,  Fincastle,  Pittsylvania  and  Westmoreland ;  in  February,  Lan- 
caster; in  April,  Bedford;  in  May,  Mecklenburgh  and  Augusta.  Vide 
ibid.,  vols,  i,  ii,  passim,  and  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  passim. 


462  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

In  the  provincial  convention,  which  began  to  meet  on 
March  20,  every  one  of  the  sixty-two  counties  was  repre- 
sented; which  makes  it  probable  that  a  great  many  more 
counties  than  those  noted  here  appointed  committees  of  ob- 
servation. CQn  March  22  the  members  of  the  provincial 
convention  voted  their  unanimous  approval  of  the  meas- 
ures of  the  Continental  Congress/  The  new  House  of 
Burgesses,  the  first  since  the  dramatic  dissolution  of  May, 
1774,  was  not  called  into  session  until  the  first  of  June, 
1775;  and  on  the  fifth  of  the  month  they  also  resolved, 
without  a  dissenting  voice,  their  entire  approval  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Congress. V^ 

Thus,  excellent  machinery  of  enforcement  was  estab- 
lished in  all  parts  of  the  province.  A  source  of  weakness 
was  the  small  but  powerful  body  of  merchants  and  factors, 
who  could  not  be  expected  to  relinquish  without  a  struggle 
their  prospects  of  recovering  the  great  sums  which  the 
planters  owed  them ;  but  even  these  professed  an  allegiance 
to  the  Association. 

The  movement  in  North  Carolina  for  the  appointment  of 
committees  proceeded  sluggishly,  except  at  the  principal 
port.  Wilmington,  where  a  city  committee  of  observation 
was  chosen  on  November  23,  1774,  and  a  county  committee 
some  weeks  later. ^  Pitt  County  appointed  a  committee  on 
December  9,  and  other  tidewater  counties  probably  fol- 
lowed this  example.*  A  pronounced  and  eiifective  opposi- 
tion to  the  Association  was  made  in  the  populous  back- 
country  counties,  where  the  Regulators  had  risen  up  several 
years  before  in  opposition  to  the  oppressive  practices  of  the 
very    tidewater    leaders    who    now    sought    their    support 

1  Va.  Gas.,  Mch.  30.  1775 :  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  167. 

*  Ihid..  vol.  ii,  p.  1193. 

*  -V.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1088-1089.  1107-1108.  1154. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  p.  1095  ;  vol.  x,  pp.  37-38. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  463 

against  England.^  Addresses  were  sent  to  Governor  Mar- 
tin, signed  by  many  inhabitants  of  Anson,  Rowan,  Surry 
and  Guilford  Counties,  condemning  the  "  lawless  combina- 
tions and  unwarrantable  practices  "  introduced  into  North 
Carolina  from  other  provinces." 

When  a  provincial  convention  assembled  at  Newbern  on 
Monday,  April  3,  1775,  nine  county  and  two  town  constitu- 
encies, most  of  them  in  the  back  country,  failed  to  send 
representatives ;  and  Governor  Martin  averred  that :  "in 
many  others  the  Committees  consisting  of  10  or  12  iVIen 
took  upon  themselves  to  name  them  and  [in]  the  rest  they 
were  not  chosen  according  to  the  best  of  my  information 
by  1-20  part  of  the  people."  ^  The  convention  met  one  day 
before  the  time  fixed  for  the  sitting  of  the  Assembly.  This 
was  of  considerable  convenience,  physically  and  politically,, 
since  every  member  of  the  Assembly  who  appeared  was, 
with  a  single  exception,  also  a  member  of  the  convention.^ 
Sturdy  John  Harvey  acted  as  "  Mr.  Moderator "  of  the 
<>ne  body  and  "  Mr.  Speaker  "  of  the  other ;  and  indeed  the 
two  bodies  met  in  the  same  room,  changing  character  with 
chameleonlike  suddemiess  when  occasion  demanded.  Gov- 
ernor Martin  issued  a  proclam.ation  for  dispersing  the  con- 
vention ;  and  on  Tuesday  he  sent  a  message  to  the  Assembly 
denouncing  the  convention  and  all  committees  of  observa- 
tion.' Whjle  the  House  on  the  following  day  set  about 
preparing  an  answer  to  the  governor,  the  convention  tcK>k 
occasion  to  ratify  the  Continental  Association  in  a  formal, 
vote,  and  all  the  members  of  the  convention,  with  a  few  ex- 

^  Bassett,   "Regulators   of    Xortli    Carolina,"    ./;//.    HUl.    Assn.   Rep.. 
(  1894),  PP-  209-210. 
-A'.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  i.x,  pp.  1157,  1 160-1 164. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  ix.  p,  1228. 

*  There  were  more  delegates,  however,  than  Assemblymen. 
^  Ihid..  vol.  ix,  pp.  T187,  1190-1196. 


464  1'^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ceptions,  signed  their  names  to  it/  The  situation  became 
intolerable  to  Governor  IMartin  when,  on  Friday,  the  sev- 
enth, the  House  presented  an  address  in  defense  of  the  con- 
vention and  the  committees  and  voted  approval  of  the 
Association.^  On  the  following  day  he  dissolved  the  As- 
sembly. -A-lthough  not  as  thoroughly  organized  as  many 
other  provinces.  North  Carolina  was  in  position  to  carry 
through  the  Association,  since  the  burden  of  enforcement 
rested  with  the  tidewater  communities  where  committees 
were  in  existence. 

In  South  Carolina  the  General  Committee  at  Charleston 
took  the  initiative  in  bringing  about  a  ratification  of  the 
Association.  The  situation  presented  some  peculiar  diffi- 
culties because  of  the  partiality  shown  to  the  rice  planters 
in  the  non-exportation  regulation  of  the  Association. 
Ultra-radicals  like  Gadsden  did  not  like  the  appearance  of 
a  sales-price  attached  to  South  Carolina  patriotism,  and 
they  resolved  to  ratify  the  Association  with  the  proviso 
that  the  rice  exemption  be  stricken  out.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  indigo  interests  saw  no  reason  why  the  welfare  of  the 
rice  planters  should  be  safeguarded  by  the  Association  and 
their  own,  equally  meritorious,  ignored. 

The  General  Committee  sought  to  disarm  both  elements 
of  opposition  by  the  course  it  adopted.  On  November  9, 
1774,  a  call  was  sent  out  for  a  provincial  congress  to  meet 
at  Charleston  on  Wednesday,  January  11,  for  the  purpose 
of  acting  on  the  Continental  Association  and  choosing  a 
new  committee.^  The  committee  then  proceeded  to  have 
copies  of  the  Association  (of  which  they  signified  their  high 

^  A^.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1180-1182,  1184-1185. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1198-1205.  The  North  Carolina  provincial  congress, 
which  assembled  on  Aug.  20,  1775,  voted  a  formal  acceptance  of  the 
Association  on  the  twenty-third.    Ibid.,  vol.  x,  p.  171. 

'  S.  C.  Gas.,  Nov.  21,  1774. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  465 

approval)  distributed  to  the  members  in  the  various  parts 
of  the  province;  and  with  this  document  they  also  sent 
copies  of  a  justification  which  the  South  Carolina  delegates 
in  the  Continental  Congress  had  drawn  up  to  explain  their 
course  there. ^  This  latter  paper  was  a  shrewd  piece  of 
writing.  It  endeavored  to  show,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the 
apparent  discrimination  in  the  Association  in  favor  of 
South  Carolina  served,  in  fact,  only  to  place  the  province 
on  a  basis  of  equality  with  the  other  provinces,  and  that 
therefore  any  charge  of  commercialized  patriotism  was 
ill-founded."  The  larger  part  of  the  document  was  spent 
in  an  effort  to  convince  the  indigo  growers  that  the  rice 
planters  had  no  desire  to  take  unfair  advantage  of  them. 
Three  reasons  were  offered  why  rice  had  been  permitted  to 
be  exported  by  Congress  instead  of  indigo :  rice  was  a 
perishable  commodity;  it  did  not  serve  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  as  provision,  nor,  as  in  the  case  of  indigo,  as  an  aid 
in  manufacturing;  furthermore,  lands  which  produced  rice 
could  be  devoted  to  no  other  use  whereas  most  of  the  indigo 
lands  might  be  advantageously  planted  with  wheat,  barley 
and  hemp.  In  conclusion,  the  delegates  proposed  that  the 
superior  advantage  of  the  rice  planters  should  be  counter- 
balanced by  a  compensatory  arrangement  with  the  indigo 
growers;  that  is,  "that  a  reasonable  proportion  of  all  rice 
made  after  the  present  crop  be  appropriated  to  the  purchase 
of  indigo  made  by  such  planters  as  are  so  situated  as  to  be 
unable  to  turn  their  lands   to  the  production  of   articles 

'  A  copy  of  this  justification  maj'  be  found  in  A'.  Y.  Joitrii.,  Dec. 
8,  1774. 

*  Thus  it  was  declared  :  "  That  while  the  other  colonies  had  the  ex- 
portation of  wheat,  flour,  oil.  fish  and  other  commodities  open,  Caro- 
lina would  (without  the  exception  of  rice)  have  had  no  sort  of  article 
to  export  at  all;"  and  further,  "That  Carolina,  having  no  manufac- 
tures, was  under  a  more  immediate  necessity  of  some  means  to  pur- 
chase the  necessaries  of  life,  particularly  negro  clothing." 


_|.66  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

which  may  be  exported;  and  that  the  indigo  so  purchased 
become  the  property  of  those  for  whose  rice  it  was  ex- 
changed." 

The  appeal  of  the  delegates  was  well  calculated  to  accom- 
plish their  purpose;  and  it  proved  particularly  effective  in 
healing  the  breach  that  had  appeared  between  the  rice 
planters  and  the  indigo  growers.  A  strong  note  of  dissent 
was  still  to  be  heard,  however,  in  certain  quarters.  A  letter 
written  at  Charleston  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  claimed 
that :  "  Most  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  province  are  dis- 
pleased that  their  Delegates  asked  an  exception  of  rice  from 
the  Non-Exportation  agreement."  ^  In  the  South  Carolina 
Gazette  of  January  2,  1775,  "A  Country  Rice  Planter" 
asked  if  the  South  Carolina  delegates  were  "  ever  instructed 
by  the  People  to  hold  out  in  that  Article  and  to  refuse  their 
Vote  if  not  complied  with?";  and  suggested  that:  ''  Even 
supposing  we  were  not  upon  a  Level  as  to  the  Privilege  of 
Exportation  with  some  other  Colonies,  is  it  the  grand 
struggle  now.  Whether  we  shall  be  upon  a  Level?  or  is  it. 
Whether  we  shall  be  free,  and  who  shall  do  most  and  suffer 
most  to  establish  this  Freedom?"  The  rice  planters  were 
advised  to  repudiate  their  exemption  outright  rather  than 
agree  to  "  the  Schefiie  of  Barter  proposed,  which  it  will  not 
only  be  as  difficult  to  obtain  the  Assent  of  the  Colony  to  as 
the  above — but  be  infinitely  more  difficult  to  accomplish  to 
Satisfaction."  As  late  as  the  opening  day  of  the  provincial 
congress,  an  onlooker  at  Charleston  predicted  that  positive 
instructions  would  be  given  the  delegates  to  the  Second 
Continental  Congress  to  put  a  stop  to  the  exportation  of 
rice  when  the  non-exportation  regulation  should  take  effect.^ 
But  these  writers,  as  the  result  showed,  undervalued  the 
persuasive  appeal  of  self-interest  to  the  planting  element. 

^  .V.  Y.  Journ.,  Jan.  26,  1775. 
'  Mass.  Spy,  Feb.  16,  1775. 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  467 

/The  provincial  congress,  which  began  its  sessions  on 
Wednesday.  January  1 1 ,  had  a  mernbership  almost  four 
times  as  large  as  that  of  the  House  of  Assembly,  and  all 
parishes  and  districts  of  the  province  were  represented 
according  to  a  predetermined  ratio\  Colonel  Charles  Pinck- 
ne}-,  chairman  of  the  General  Committee,  was  chosen  as 
chairman  of  the  congress,  and  the  omnipresent  Peter  Tim- 
othy served  as  secretary.^  On  the  first  day,  the  delegates  to 
the  Continental  Congress  being  in  attendance,  the  Asso- 
ciation w^as  taken  vmder  consideration.  The  last  four 
words  of  Article  iv — "  except  rice  to  Europe  " — gave  rise, 
to  a  long  and  violent  debate.  Gadsden  spoke  for  the  mo- 
tion, recounted  the  critical  situation  precipitated  by  his  four 
colleagues  in  the  Continental  Congress,  and  declared  that 
the  reluctant  concession  granted  by  the  other  provinces  had 
created  a  jealousy  of  the  rice  provinces  which  ought  to  be 
removed  at  the  earliest  possible  time.  John  Rutledge  now 
undertook  to  defend  the  action  of  the  majority  of  the  South 
Carolina  delegation.  He  contended  that  the  northern  prov- 
inces "  were  less  intent  to  annoy  the  mother  country  in  the 
article  of  trade  than  to  preserve  their  own  trade;"  which 
made  it  seem  only  "  justice  to  his  constituents  to  preserve 
to  them  their  trade  as  entire  as  possible."  In  vigorous  lan- 
guage he  emphasized  the  point  that,  since  rice  and  indigo 
were  enumerated  products,  non-exportation  in  those  articles 
meant  entire  ruin  for  those  staples  of  South  Carolina, 
whereas  the  northern  provinces,  having  export  connections 
chieih-  with  foreign  countries,  were  little  affected  by  a  non- 
exportation  to  British  countries.  For  one,  he  could  not 
consent  to  the  Carolinians  becoming  ''dupes  to  the  people 

'Journal  of  the  congress  in  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  pp.  1109-1118:  Dray- 
ton's detailed  account  of  the  debates  in  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i, 
pp.  168-176;  brief  accounts  in  5".  C.  Gac.  Jan.  23,  i775;  ^^-  Y-  Gaz., 
Feb.  6;  and  .V.  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  9. 


468  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

of  the  North."  He  even  charged  "  a  commercial  scheme 
among  the  Flour  Colonies  "  to  seize  for  themselves  the 
markets  which  had  hitherto  been  supplied  by  South  Caro- 
lina rice  via  Great  Britain.  Turning  to  the  indigo  group, 
he  expatiated  on  the  justice  and  practicability  of  a  scheme 
of  compensation  as  a  method  of  equalizing  burdens. 

The  subject  was  thus  complicated  by  the  question  of 
compensation,  and  the  debate  became  more  general.  Among 
the  principal  speakers  in  opposition  to  the  compensation 
plan  were  Gadsden,  Rawlins  Lowndes,  and  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Tennent.  If  the  rice  exemption  must  needs  be  re- 
tained, yet,  they  asked,  why  should  the  benefits  of  compen- 
sation be  monopolized  by  the  indigo  growers  alone?;  "  it 
should  afford  in  justice  also  relief  to  the  Hemp  Grower, 
the  Lumber  Cutter,  the  Corn  Planter,  the  Makers  of  Pork 
and  Butter,  &c."  It  was  said  that  "  this  odious  distinction 
has  cruelly  convulsed  the  Colony."  On  the  other  side  the 
chief  speakers  were  William  Henry  Drayton,  the  Rutledges, 
and  the  Lynches,  father  and  son.  In  this  manner  the  whole 
day  was  consumed,  and  at  sunset  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  formulate  a  plan  of  compensation.  The  report 
was  made  late  next  morning  to  an  assemblage  that  had  been 
waiting  impatiently  for  two  hours..  All  parties  united  in 
voting  through  the  first  part  of  the  report,  which  authorized 
the  committees  of  the  several  parishes  and  districts  to  sit 
as  judges  and  juries  in  all  matters  affecting  the  collection 
of  debts.  But  the  details  of  the  plan  for  compensation 
proved  unsatisfactory  and  were  rejected. 

The  debate  reverted  to  the  original  question  of  expung- 
ing the  words,  "  except  rice  to  Europe,"  and  continued 
until  dark.  "  Great  heats  prevailed  and  the  members  were 
on  the  point  of  falling  into  downright  uproar  and  con- 
fusion." When  the  question  was  at  length  put  by  candle- 
light, a  demand  was  made  that  the  vote  be  taken  by  roll-call 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  469 

instead  of  viva  voce;  and  "  by  this  mode  [says  Drayton] 
some  were  overawed,  either  by  their  diffidence,  circum- 
stances, or  connexions:  and  to  the  surprise  of  the  nays, 
they  themselves  carried  the  point  b}^  a  majority  of  twelve 
voices — eighty-seven  to  seventy-five."  A  formal  endorse- 
ment of  the  Continental  Association  was  then  voted.  A 
day  or  so  later  the  members  succeeded  in  agreeing  upon  a 
plan  of  compensation  and  exchange,  in  which  the  benefits 
of  the  arrangement  were  extended  far  beyond  the  original 
intention  of  relief  for  the  indigo  growers  exclusively. 
.\fter  the  tenth  of  September  the  rice  planters  were  to  de- 
liver to  designated  committees  one-third  of  their  crop  and 
receive,  at  a  stated  rate  of  exchange,  not  more  than  one- 
third  of  certain  other  commodities  produced  in  the  prov- 
ince, such  as  indigo,  hemp,  lumber,  corn  and  pork. 

Before  adjourning,  the  provincial  congress  took  the  pre- 
caution of  appointing  committees  in  each  parish  and  dis- 
trict to  carry  into  effect  the  Continental  Association:  and 
in  every  case  members  of  congress  composed  a  majority  of 
the  committee.^  In  this  way,  according  to  Drayton,  no 
time  was  lost  "  in  giving  a  complete  appearance  to  the  body 
politic  and  the  greatest  energy  to  their  operations."  Future 
vacancies  in  the  committees  were  to  be  filled  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  parishes  and  districts.  South  Carolina  was  thus 
equipped  with  a  well-solidified  extra-legal  organization, 
invigorated  by  an  interested  public  opinion. 

The  province  of  Georgia  had  been  unrepresented  in  the 
Continental  Congress,  although  the  zealous  radicals  of  St. 
John's  Parish,  assisted  by  some  congenial  spirits  at  Savan- 
nah in  Christ  Church  Parish,  had  employed  their  utmost 
endeavors  to  bring  the  province  into  line.  From  some 
points  of  view,  prospects  for  radical  action  were  brighter 

'  For  the  names  cf  the  members  of  these  committees,  vide  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  11 13-1 114. 


470 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763.1776 


in  the  months  following  the  Continental  Congress,  inas- 
much as  the  threatened  Indian  war  had  failed  to  materialize 
and  as  rice,  one  of  the  staples  of  the  province,  had  been 
given  a  favored  position  in  the  Continental  Association. 
In  other  respects,  the  situation  was  more  complicated  be- 
cause of  a  division  among  the  radicals  themselves  as  to  the 
question  of  tactics.  Some  of  them  insisted  that  the  prov- 
ince should  be  induced  to  accept  the  Continental  Associa- 
tion in  the  form  in  which  it  was  issued  by  Congress ;  others 
believed  that  a  bid  should  be  made  for  mercantile  support 
by  further  postponing  the  time  at  which  the  non-importation 
and  non-exportation  regulations  were  to  become  effective. 
The  extremists  of  St.  John's  Parish  were  uncompromising- 
advocates  of  the  former  course  and  they  hastened  to  adopt 
the  Association  in  toto  on  December  i.^  The  radicals  at 
Savannah  and  the  radical  members  of  the  Assembly  were 
inclined  to  the  more  conciliatory  course. 

"  Since  the  Carolina  Deputies  have  returned  from  the 
Continental  Congress  .  .  .  ,  even'  means  possible  have  been 
used  to  raise  a  flame  again  in  this  Province,"  wrote  Gov- 
ernor Wright  on  December  13,  1774.'  The  first  step  in  the 
direction  of  provincial  action  was  taken  by  the  Savannah 
radicals  on  December  3,  when  a  call  was  issued  for  a  pro- 
vincial congress  to  assemble  on  January  18,  I775-'  At  the 
time  appointed,  delegates  appeared  from  only  five  of  the 
twelve  parishes  and  districts  to  which  the  radicals  had  par- 
ticularly written,  and  some  of  these  were  under  injunc- 
tions as  to  the  form  of  the  Association  which  should  be 
adopted.*     It  would  appear,  also,  that,  with  the  exception 

*  A  convention  of  the  District  of  Darien  did  the  same  on  Jan.   12, 
1775.    4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1135-1136. 

'  Ihid..  vol.  i,  p.  1040. 

*  Ga.  Gaz.,  Dec.  7,  1774;  also  Pa.  Gas..  Dec.  28. 

*  This    account    of    the    Georgia    congress    and    the    meeting    of    the 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


471 


of  St.  John's  Parish,  small  radical  minorities  had  carried 
through  the  election  of  delegates.^  Furthermore,  the  dele- 
gation from  St.  John's  Parish,  headed  by  Dr.  Lyman  Hall, 
although  present  in  Savannah,  refused  to  take  part  in  the 
congress  because  of  the  known  intention  of  that  body  to 
deviate  from  the  Continental  Association,  which  the  men 
of  St.  John's  had  adopted  verbatim. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  members  of  the  congress 
found  themselves  in  a  dilemma.  Representing  a  small  and 
amorphous  minority  of  the  people  and  estranged  for  the 
time  being  from  the  ultra-radicals  of  St.  John's,  they  did 
not  dare  to  represent  their  action  as  the  voice  of  the  prov- 
ince ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  did  not  wish  the  endorsement 
of  the  Continental  Congress  to  fail  by  default.  They  de- 
cided therefore  to  take  advantage  of  an  opportunity 
afforded  by  the  presence  of  the  Assembly  in  town.  That 
body  had  already  given  indications  of  its  friendliness  when 
it  had  laid  on  the  table  without  comment  two  petitions 
signed  by  a  number  of  "  principal  people,"  condemning  the 
measures  of  the  northern  provinces,  and  when  it  had 
adopted  the  declaration  of  rights  and  grievances  of  the 
Continental  Congress.  The  plan  was  that  the  provincial 
congress  should  formulate  a  course  of  action  with  reference 
to  the  Association  and  then  present  its  conclusions  to  the 
House  of  Assembly,  which  would  adopt  them  in  a  few 
minutes  before  the  governor  could  interfere  by  means  of 
dissolution. 

Upon  this  understanding,  the  members  of  the  congress 

Assembly  is  based  on  various  contemporary  narratives,  friendly  and 
unfriendly,  in  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1156-1163;  vol.  ii.  pp.  279-281; 
and  Pa.  Journ.,  Mch.  8,  1775. 

*  Thus,  it  was  alleged  that  z^  men  had  acted  in  St.  Andrew's  Par- 
ish, which  contained  at  least  800  men  of  military  age;  and  that  eighty 
men  had  done  the  work  in  St.  Paul's,  a  parish  of  equal  size. 


472 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S.1776 


now  proceeded.  Ignoring  the  insistent  messages  trans- 
mitted from  time  to  time  by  the  St.  John's  delegation  that 
the  Association  be  ratified  verbatim,  they  adopted  it  with 
modifications,  the  most  important  of  which  postponed  the 
beginning  of  non-importation  from  December  i,  1774,  to 
March  15,  1775,  and  exempted  goods  necessary  for  the 
Indian  trade  from  its  operation,  and  provided  that  non- 
exportation  should  start  on  December  i,  1775,  instead  of 
September  10,  1775.  These  changes  were  made  on  the  plea 
of  allowing  the  Georgia  merchants  approximately  the  same 
time  for  arranging  their  business  for  the  suspension  of 
trade  that  the  merchants  of  other  provinces  had  enjoyed. 
The  congress  also'  chose  three  inhabitants  of  Savannah  as 
delegates  to  the  Second  Continental  Congress.  These  mat- 
ters were  now  ready  to  be  presented  to  the  House  of 
Assembly  for  ratification  "  when  the  Governour,  either 
treacherously  informed,  or  shrewdly  suspecting  the  step, 
put  an  end  to  the  session."  The  members  of  the  provincial 
congress  made  the  most  of  a  bad  situation  by  issuing  their 
Association  on  January  23,  with  their  signatures  attached, 
and  pledging  their  constituents  to  its  execution. 

Thus  the  efifort  to  unite  the  province  in  radical  measures 
with  the  other  provinces  proved  a  failure.  The  delegates 
chosen  to  the  Second  Continental  Congress  refused  to  serve 
in  that  capacity  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not  in  position 
to  pledge  the  people  of  Georgia  to  the  execution  of  any 
measure  whatsoever.  The  radicals  in  general  awaited  the 
action  which  the  Second  Congress  would  take  in  the  cir- 
cumstances. The  committee  of  St.  John's  Parish,  unbend- 
ing in  their  self-sufficiency,  began  to  cast  about  for  some 
way  of  escaping  the  boycott,  which  threatened  them,  as 
well  as  the  rest  of  the  province,  under  Article  xiv  of  the 
Continental  Association. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Five  Months  of  the  Association  in  the  Commercial 
Provinces  (December,  1774-ApRiL,  1775) 

I  In  studying  the  actual  workings  of  the  Association  two 
important  considerations  should  be  borne  in  mind.  Warned 
by  the  trend  of  public  discussion  in  the  months  preceding 
the  adoption  of  the  Association,  and  allowed  several  weeks 
of  open  importation  by  the  provisions  of  the  Association, 
the  merchants  had  an  opportunity  to  provide  against  future 
scarcity  by  importin^much  greater  quantities  of  merchan- 
dise than  customary/'  Richard  Oswald  quoted  a  British 
exporter  as  saying  that  in  July,  1774,  an  extraordinarily 
brisk  export  trade  set  up,  which  swept  the  warehouses  for 
American  goods  clean  and  advanced  the  price  of  many 
articles  from  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent/  Other  evidences  of 
the  inflated  conditions  of  exportation  to  America  are  abun- 
dant. Wrote  a  London  merchant  to  his  New  York  corres- 
pondent on  July  29,  1774:  "The  people  of  Philadelphia 
have  encreased  their  orders  triply  this  fall ;  from  whence  I 
am  persuaded  they  mean  to  have  a  Non-Importation  Agree- 
ment." -  "I  hear  the  merchants  are  sending  for  double 
the  quantity  of  goods  they  usually  import."  wrote  Governor 
Gage  in  August.  "  and  in  order  to  get  credit  for  them,  are 
sending  home  all  the  money  they  can  collect,  insomuch  that 
bills  have  risen  at  New-York  above  five  per  cent."  '     "  So 

'  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  vol.  xxiv,  no.  2037,  p.  14. 

*A'.  Y.  Gazetteer.  Sept.  22.  1774.     J'ide  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Aug.  24. 

*  /  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  742-743. 

473 


474  l"^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

great  has  been  the  exportation  to  America,  particularly  to 
New-England,  for  these  six  weeks  past,"  wrote  a  London 
correspondent  in  the  same  month,  "  that  it  is  the  opinion 
of  some  Merchants  conversant  with  American  Trade  that,  if 
the  Colonies  do  agree  in  a  non-importation  scheme,  it  will 
hardly  be  felt  by  our  Manufacturers  for  six  months  or  a 
year."  ^  The  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence  enter- 
tained the  same  general  view  of  the  situation.  "  We  learn 
by  private  papers  from  England,"  they  wrote  on  September 
7.  "  that  prodigious  quantities  of  goods  are  now  shipping 
for  the  Colonv  of  Rhode  Island,  New  York  and  Philadel- 

/_As  a  result  of  the  augmented  importation  into  America 
prior  to  the  time  that  the  Association  went  into  effect,  the 
conditions  of  life  under  the  non-importation  regulation 
were  greatly  ameliorated  for  the  colonists.^  It  was  generally 
estimated  that  the  stock  of  goods  on  hand  on  December  i, 
1774,  would  suffice  without  replenishment  for  two  years.^ 

^  N.  Y.  Gas.,  Sept.  26,  1774. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  784.  Dr.  Samuel  Cooper  wrote  to  John  Adams 
in  similar  strain  in  October.  Ibid.,  p.  878.  Vide  also  A^  Y.  Journ., 
Sept.  29,  1774;  N.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  p.  1093.  A  convention  of 
several  Connecticut  counties  and  a  meeting  of  the  town  of  Pomfret 
protested  against  the  flood  of  goods  which  was  pouring  into  Connecticut 
from  New  York.  Conn.  Cour.,  Sept.  19,  1774;  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  217-218,  307-310.  A  comparison  of  the  imports  from  England 
during  the  years  1773  and  1774  confirms  these  statements,  although  it  is 
only  fair  to  note  that  the  former  year  was  an  off  year,  due  to  the 
excessive  importations  of  1771  and  1772  following  the  breakdown  of 
the  earlier  non-importation  agreement.  English  importations  into 
New  York  increased  from  £289,214  in  1773  to  ^437.937  in  I774;  into 
Pennsylvania  from  £426,448  to  £625,652;  into  Maryland  and  Virginia 
from  £328,904  to  £528.738.  There  was  a  slighter  increase  in  the  case 
of  New  England  and  the  Carolinas — from  £527,055  to  £562,476  in  case 
of  the  former,  and  from  £344,859  to  £378,116  in  case  of  the  latter. 
Georgia  showed  a  decrease.  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol. 
iii.  pp.  549-550,  564. 

'£.  g.,  vide  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.   1740.     "A  Friend   of  Liberty" 


A 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


A7S 


This  was  something  of  an  overestimate,  however.  This 
supply  of  merchandise  rendered  the  enforcement  of  the 
non-importation  during  the  first  twelvemonth  easier  than 
it  would  otherwise  have  been,  for  the  merchants  who  had 
laid  in  goods  were  not  easily  tempted  to  defy  the  regula- 
tions of  Congress  and  the  committees.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  utility  of  the  Association  as  an  instrument  of  coercion 
was  not  materially  lessened  by  the  advance  importations. 
The  great  consignments  of  British  wares  had  to  reach 
America  before  December  i,  1774,  or,  at  the  most,  not 
later  than  February  i,  1775;  and  thereafter  British  mer- 
cantile houses  and  manufactories  became  idle  so  far  as 
American  business  was  concerned.  They  were  threatened 
with  dull  times  and  industrial  depression  at  a  time  when 
their  capital  was  more  largely  than  usual  tied  up  in  Amer- 
ican ventures^ 

^The  second  consideration 'to  be  kept  in  mind  in  examin- 
ing the  Association  in  operation^  is  that,  after  the  non- 
importation regulation  had  been  in  force  for  four  and  a 
half  months,  events  occurred  which  changed  the  whole  face 
of  public  affairs  and  rapidly  converted  the  Association  from 
a  mode  of  peaceful  pressure  into  a  war  measure.  The 
action  of  the  "  embattled  farmers  "  at  Lexington  and  Con- 
cord and  the  military  operations  that  followed  showed  the 
radicals  that  the  Association  as  a  method  of  redress  had 
suddenl}^  become  antiquated  and  that  it  must  be  altered,  if 
not  altogether  abandoned,  to  meet  the  greatly  changed 
conditions.  '  This  realization  was  at  once  acted  upon  by 
local  committees  and  by  Congress;  and  by  the  middle  of 

averred  that  this  was  the  understanding  upon  which  the  colonists  had 
associated.  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Feb.  2,  1775.  Alexander  Hamilton  be- 
lieved that  the  merchants'  stocks  would  be  exhausted  in  eighteen 
months,  but  that  with  the  clothes  which  the  people  already  possessed 
imported  articles  would  be  in  use  for  three  years.  "  The  Farmer  Re- 
futed," Hamilton,  Works  (Lodge),  vol.  i,  p.  151. 


476  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

lyyS  th^  Continental  Association  was  rapidly  losing  its 
original  character.  The  military  purposes  to  which  the 
machinery  of  the  Association  was  turned  became  increas- 
ingly important,  so  that  by  September  lo,  1775,  when  the 
non-exportation  was  to  begin,  the  character  of  that  measure 
had  also  to  be  changed.  Thus,  the  bold  experiment,  in- 
augurated by  the  First  Congress  —  to  establish  the  several 
self-denying  regulations  of  the  Association  through  the 
mobilizing  of  public  opinion — was  brought  to  a  premature 
close  by  the  call  to  arms.  "^ 

Certain  generalizations  may  be  made  with  reference  to 
the  workings  of  the  /Association  before  taking  up  the  prac- 
tice of  the  provinces  separately.  In  Massachusetts,  where 
the  war  fever  was  high,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  in  the 
neighboring  provinces,  the  committees  and  conventions  felt 
called  upon  to  concern  themselves  with  military  preparations 
even  before  the  outbreak  of  war.  Every  province  without 
exception  availed  itself  of  the  suggestion  made  in  the  Asso- 
ciation that  such  further  regulations  should  be  established 
by  the  provincial  conventions  and  committees  as  might  be 
deemed  proper  to  enforce  the  Association.  Non-importa- 
tion and  sumptuar}"-  regulations  occupied  the  entire  attention 
in  the  period  before  the  opening  of  hostilities,  save  for  the 
non-exportation  of  sheep,  inasmuch  as  the  general  non- 
exportation  was  not  to  become  effective  until  September  10, 
1775.  For  the  present,  the  period  of  enforcement  prior  to 
the  outbreak  of  war  will  be  considered. 

Almost  the  tirst  collective  action  taken  in  Massachusetts 
to  strengthen  the  Continental  Association  locally  was  an 
agreement,  signed  by  forty-one  blacksmiths  of  Worcester 
County  on  November  8,  1774,  that  they  would  refuse  their 
work  to  all  persons  who  did  not  strictly  conform  to  the 
Association.      They  agreed    further   that  the)^   would   not 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


477 


perform  any  kind  of  work,  after  December  i,  for  persons 
of  Tory  leanings,  particularly  Timothy  Ruggles  of  Hard- 
wick,  John  Murray  of  Rutland,  James  Putnam  of  Worces- 
ter, their  employees  and  dependents.^  By  this  latter  re- 
solve hung  a  tale,  for  Timothy  Ruggles  and  his  friends, 
with  the  active  co-operation  of  Governor  Gage,  were  seek- 
ing to  promote  a  loyalist  association  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
feating the  Continental  Association.  By  the  terms  of  this 
association  the  subscribers  pledged  themselves  to  defend, 
with  lives  and  fortune,  their  "  life,  liberty  and  property  " 
and  their  "  undoubted  right  to  liberty  in  eating,  drinking, 
buying,  selling,  communing,  and  acting  .  .  .  consistent 
with  the  laws  of  God  and  the  King."  "  When  the  person 
or  property  of  any  of  us  shall  be  invaded  or  threatened  by 
Committees,  mobs,  or  unlawful  assemblies,"  said  one  por- 
tion of  the  paper,  "  the  others  of  us  will,  upon  notice  re- 
ceived, forthwith  repair,  properly  armed,  to  the  person  on 
whom  .  .  .  such  invasion  or  threatening  shall  be.  and  will, 
to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  defend  such  person  and  his 
property,  and.  if  need  be,  will  oppose  and  repel  force  with 
force."== 

This  brave  pledge  of  opposition  failed  to  win  signers,  for 
the  reason  that  every  signer  of  the  paper  at  once  exposed 
himself  to  the  swift  wrath  of  the  radicals.  The  provincial 
congress  on  December  9  recommended  to  the  committees  of 
correspondence  to  give  "  the  earliest  notice  to  the  publick 
of  all  such  combinations,  and  of  the  persons  signing  the 
same,  .  .  .  that  their  names  may  be  published  to  the  world, 
their  persons  treated  with  that  neglect,  and  their  memories 
transmitted  to  posterity  with  that  ignominy  which  such  un- 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Nov.  28,  1774. 

"*  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Dec.  26,   1774;   also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  1057-1058. 


478 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


natural  conduct  must  deserve."  '  It  was  under  influence  of 
this  resolution  that,  a  few  weeks  later,  a  mob  of  people  at 
Wrentham  coerced  five  loyalists  to  plead,  with  heads  im- 
covered,  the  forgiveness  of  Heaven,  and  to  pledge  unde- 
viating  adherence  to  the  Continental  Association.^  Marsh- 
field  was  the  only  town  where  as  many  as  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men  signed  the  loyalist  association,  and  the  associators 
discreetly  sent  a  hurry-call  to  Gage  for  troops  for  their 
protection.^  Gage  complained  that  the  "  considerable 
people  "  of  Boston  were  "  more  shy  of  making  open  dec- 
larations," notwithstanding  that  they  were  in  a  fortified 
town,  than  the  people  in  the  country.*  The  failure  of  the 
loyalist  association  was  due  to  the  superior  organization  of 
the  radicals  rather  than  to  lack  of  support  for  it. 

The  provincial  congress,  meeting  in  late  November  and 
early  December,  1774,  passed  a  number  of  resolutions  to 
supplement  and  strengthen  several  portions  of  the  Conti- 
nental Association.  They  also  recommended  that  the  min- 
isters of  the  gospel  throughout  the  province  instruct  their 
congregations  to  cleave  to  the  Association ;  and  in  a  fervent 
address  directly  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  the\' 
urged  the  organization  of  minute-men  as  a  protection 
against  Gage's  troops  who  would  certainly  be  employed  to 
defeat  the  Association.^ 

There  was  unmistakable  evidence  that  the  non-importa- 
tion regulation  was  strictly  enforced.  In  accordance  with 
Article  x.  importers  of  merchandise  which  arrived  between 
December  i,  1774,  and  February  i,   1775,  were  given  the 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Dec.  19,  1774;   also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.   1004.     Vide 
also  the  resolution  of  April  12,  1775;  ibid.,  pp.  1360-1361. 

*  N.  Y.  Gaz.,  Jan.  23,  1775. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1177-1178,  1249-1251. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1634;  vide  also  ibid.,  pp.  1046- 1047. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1000.  1005-1006. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  479 

choice  of  immediately  re-shipping  the  goods,  storing  the 
goods  with  the  local  committee,  or  having  them  auctioned 
off  under  direction  of  the  committee.  In  the  last  case,  the 
owner  was  reimbursed  to  the  extent  of  his  actual  invest- 
ment and  the  profits  were  devoted  to  the  uses  of  the  Boston 
needy.  The  provincial  congress  provided  that  such  sales 
must  be  advertised  in  the  Boston  and  Salem  papers  at  least 
ten  days  in  advance,  and  that  the  goods  should  be  sold  to 
the  highest  bidder.^  The  newspapers  related  many  in- 
stances of  each  course  of  procedure;  and  even  the  loyalist 
writings  did  not  seek  to  represent  otherwise.  The  chief 
centers  of  activity  were  Marblehead,  Salem  and  Plymouth. 
Many,  perhaps  most,  importers  preferred  to  offer  their 
goods  at  committee  auction  than  to  tie  up  their  capital  for 
an  indefinite  j>eriod  by  storing  the  goods — a  choice  which, 
by  the  way.  afforded  them  an  opportunity  to  buy  back  their 
own  goods. 

As  an  example  of  such  sales,  the  committee  of  inspection 
at  Marblehead  offered  at  auction  on  December  26  such  part 
of  the  cargo  of  the  London  ship  Champion  as  had  then 
been  delivered  to  the  committee,  consisting  of  Russia  duck, 
osnaburgs,  ticklinburgs,  baizes,  hemp,  linens,  hats,  books, 
women's  hose,  nails,  needles,  calicoes,  velvets  and  medi- 
cines to  the  value  of  £2410  sterling;  and  also  the  entire 
cargo  of  the  Falmouth  brigantine  Polly,  consisting  of 
lemons,  wines,  raisins  and  figs.  The  rest  of  the  goods  im- 
ported in  the  Champion  were  disposed  of  in  January."  The 
complete  cargoes  of  the  schooners  Lynn,  Britannia  and 
Adventure,  all  from  Falmouth,  were  sold  a  few  weeks 
later."     As  the  result  of  their  enterprise,  the  Marblehead 

^  Mass.  Spy,  Dec.  16,  1774. 

^  Sale  1)1    Gaz.,   Dec.  22,,    \~~a:    Essex   Cac,   Jan.   3,    1775:    Bos.   Gaz.. 
Jan.  23. 
^  Mass.  Spy.  Feb.  9,  1775. 


480  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

committee  of  inspection  derived  profits  amounting  to  £120, 
which  they  turned  over  to  Boston/  Aleantime,  the  Salem 
Committee  were  disposing  of  importations  from  Bristol, 
London,  Falmouth,  Jamaica  and  Dominica.  Their  method 
of  sale  was  indicated  by  their  advertisement  that :  "  Each 
invoice  will  be  put  up  at  the  sterling  cost  and  charges,  one 
per  cent  advance,  and  half  per  cent  each  bidder."  -  Their 
contribution  to  Boston,  as  a  result  of  the  sales,  amounted 
to  £109  9s.  5d.^  In  the  same  period  the  Plymouth  com- 
mittee of  inspection  made  profits  for  Boston  amounting  to 
£31  5s.  6y2.' 

After  February  i  few  vessels  arrived  in  Massachusetts 
ports  as  compared  with  former  and  better  days.  When  they 
did  come,  the  cargoes  were  almost  invariably  re-shipped 
without  breaking  bulk.'"'  One  instance  of  defiance  occurred 
at  Falmouth  in  March,  when  a  small  sloop  arrived  from 
Bristol  with  rigging,  sails  and  stores  for  a  vessel  which 
Thomas  Coulson  was  in  the  process  of  building.  The  com- 
mittee of  inspection  resolved  that  the  materials  should  be 
returned  by  the  same  vessel:  but  Coulson  would  conform 
to  their  demands  only  in  part.  He  brought  on  his  head  the 
condemnation  of  the  Cumberland  County  convention,  which 
shortly  after  assembled  at  Falmouth;  and  as  Coulson  con- 
tinued obdurate,  the  committee  of  inspection  published  him 
as  a  violator  of  the  Association.® 

Few  efforts  were  made  to  violate  the  regulation  for  the 
non-exportation  of  sheep.    In  December.  Captain  Hamilton 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Mch.  13,  1775. 
^Mass.  Spy,  Jan.  5,  1775. 
^  Essex  Gaz..  Apr.  11,  1775. 
*  Bos.  Gaz.,  Mch.  27,  1775. 

^  E.  g.,  a  cargo  of  molasses  arriving  at  Marblehead  from  Dominica 
on  March  2;  Essex  Journ.,  Mch.  15,  1775. 
^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  311-313;  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Apr.  3.  1775. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  481 

at  Salem  planned  to  send  thirty  sheep  to  Jamaica ;  but  when 
the  committee  of  inspection  explained  that  he  would  be 
violating  the  Association,  he  readily  desisted.^  The  com- 
mittee later  stopped  another  consignment.  The  regulations 
concerning  non-consumption  were  harder  to  administer, 
because  of  the  practical  difficulty  of  distinguishing  between 
goods  which  might  properly  be  bought  and  those  which 
could  not.  The  committee  at  Newbur3^port  met  this  diffi- 
culty by  requiring  shopkeepers  to  produce  a  certificate  from 
some  committee  of  inspection,  testifying  that  the  wares 
offered  for  sale  had  been  imported  before  December  i  or, 
if  later,  that  they  had  been  disposed  of  according  to  Ar- 
ticle x.^  The  provincial  congress  simplified  the  situation 
for  the  future  by  passing  a  sweeping  resolution  forbidding 
the  sale,  after  October  10,  1775,  of  goods  which  fell  under 
the  ban  of  the  non-importation  regulation,  even  if  the  goods 
were  unsold  stock  remaining  from  the  period  prior  to  De- 
cember I." 

The  most  frequent  infractions  of  the  non-consumption 
regulation  occurred  with  reference  to  the  article  of  tea.  An 
example  of  the  vigilance  of  the  committees  of  inspection 
was  afforded  by  the  prompt  apprehension  of  Thomas  Lilly, 
of  Marblehead,  for  the  purchase  of  a  pound  and  a  quarter 
of  tea  from  Simon  Tufts,  a  Boston  dealer,  after  March  i. 
1775.  When  Lilly  had  burnt  the  tea  in  the  presence  of  a 
large  crowd,  and  had  signed  a  confession,  which  read  in 
part :  "  I  do  now  in  this  publick  manner  ask  their  pardon, 
and  do  solemnly  promise  I  will  not  in  future  be  guilty  of  a 
like  offence,"  the  Marblehead  committee  announced  that  he 
might  "  be  justly  entitled  to  the  esteem  and  employ  of  all 

'  Essex  Gac,  Dec.  13,  1774. 
'Essex  Journ.,  Dec.  28,  1774. 

'  4  Am.  Ar£h.,  vol.  i,  pp.  998-999.     This  resolution  was  repealed  on 
Sept.  30,  1775,  however,  before  it  became  effective.    Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  1445. 


482 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


persons  as  heretofore."  The  Boston  committee  examined 
into  Tufts'  action  and  secured  from  him  a  statement,  made 
under  oath  before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  that  the  tea  had 
been  sold  to  Lilly  by  the  clerk  without  the  knowledge  or 
consent  of  himself  and  that  in  the  future  his  conduct  should 
not  be  open  to  misconstruction.^  Some  difficulty  arose  from 
the  practice  of  peddlers  and  petty  chapmen  going  through 
the  country  towns  and  selling  teas  and  other  East  India 
goods  which,  there  was  reason  to  suspect,  had  been  im- 
ported after  December  i.  On  February  15,  1775,  the  pro- 
vincial congress  urged  the  committees  of  inspection  to  pre- 
vent such  sales,  and  recommended  to  the  inhabitants  not  to 
trade  with  peddlers  for  any  article  whatever.^ 

Some  effort  was  made  by  the  provincial  congress  to  stim- 
ulate local  industry,  although  it  hardly  went  beyond  an  ex- 
hortation to  the  people  to  form  societies  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  manufacturing  and  agriculture.  A  number  of 
articles  were  named,  whose  production  should  be  encour- 
aged —  such  as  nails,  steel,  tin-plates,  buttons,  paper,  glass 
and  hosiery,  gunlocks,  saltpetre  and  gunpowder.  A  few 
months  later,  the  provincial  congress  asked  every  family  in 
the  province  to  save  rags  in  order  that  a  paper  mill  erected 
at  Milton  might  have  a  sufficient  supply.  The  people  were 
also  asked  to  refrain  from  killing  sheep  except  in  cases  of 
dire  necessity.^  Local  manufacturers  made  some  progress 
if  one  may  judge  from  the  advertising  columns  of  the 
Massachusetts  Spy  in  January,  1775.  Fish-hooks,  made  at 
Cornish,  were  offered  for  sale  by  Lee  &  Jones.  Enoch 
Brown  advertised  sagathies,  duroys,  camblets,  calamancoes 
and  shalloons  of  Massachusetts-make,  and  decanters,  cruets 

^  Essex  Gas.,  Mch.  28,  1775,  and  Bos.  Gac.  Apr.  3;  also  -/  Am.  Arch.. 
vol.  ii,  p.  234. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1339-1340. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1001-1002,  1334;  vol.  ii,  p.  1514;  vol.  iii,  p.  329. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  483 

r 

and  other  glassware  imported  from  Philadelphia.     Boston- 
made  buttons  could  be  purchased  from  John  Clarke. 

Tendencies  toward  a  greater  frugality  were  to  be  found 
in  other  respects  as  well.  The  Marblehead  committee  of 
inspection  voted  unanimously  that  "  the  meeting  of  the  in- 
habitants of  this  town  in  parties  at  houses  of  entertainment, 
for  the  purposes  of  dancing,  feasting,  &c.,  is  expressly 
against  the  Association,"  and  that  future  offenders  should 
be  held  up  to  public  notice.^  The  regulation  with  reference 
to  simplicity  in  mourning  seems  to  have  been  well  ob- 
served,^ although  the  committee  of  inspection  at  Newbury- 
port  felt  it  necessary  to  declare  that :  "  If  any  should  .  .  . 
go  into  a  contrary  practice,  they  may  well  expect  that  their 
friends  and  neighbours  will  manifest  their  disapprobation 
...  by  declining  to  attend  the  funeral."  ^ 

In  New  Hampshire  the  enforcement  of  the  Association 
depended  in  large  degree  on  the  faithfulness  and  energy  of 
the  Committee  of  "  Forty-Five  "  at  Portsmouth,  the  only 
port  of  entry.  This  committee  proved  equal  to  its  respon- 
sibilities. Before  news  of  the  adoption  of  the  Association 
reached  Portsmouth,  Captain  Pearne,  a  merchant,  had  com- 
missioned a  brig  to  proceed  to  Madeira  for  a  cargo  of 
wine;  but  before  the  vessel  sailed  the  provisions  of  the 
Association  were  learned  and  the  merchant  agreed  to  send 
her  to  the  West  Indies  instead.*  The  committee  also 
stopped  Captain  Olivers  who  was  on  the  point  of  exporting 
fifty  sheep  to  the  West  Indies;  and  he  was  forced  to  dis- 
pose of  them  ctherwise  at  some  less  to  himself.^  On  De- 
cember 2   Governor   Wentworth  wrote  that   most  people 

^  Essex  Gaz.,  Jan.  17,  1775;  also  Salem  Gas.,  Jan.  20. 

*  Mass.  Spy,  Nov.  24,  1774. 

^  Essex  Journ.,  Dec.  28,  1774. 

*  N.  H.  Gas.,  Nov.  18,  1774. 

•'  4  Avi.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1013;  N.  H.  Gaz.,  Nov.  18,  1774. 


48. 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S-1776 


accepted  the  regulations  of  Congress  "  as  matters  of  obe- 
dience, not  of  considerate  examination,  whereon  they  ma}^ 
exercise  their  own  judgment."  ^  When  sixty  pounds  of 
dutied  tea  was  found  in  possession  of  a  shopkeeper  on  Jan- 
uary 1 8,  the  culprit  exhibited  the  better  part  of  valor  by 
burning  it  in  the  presence  of  a  large  crowd."  On  February 
lo  the  committee  recommended  that  all  who  furnished 
accommodations  for  cards  and  billiards  should  discontinue 
their  unjustifiable  proceedings  at  once.^  So  energetic  was 
the  committee  that  the  conservatives  endeavored  to  set  on 
foot  an  association  in  opposition  to  the  Continental  Asso- 
ciation ;  but  the  movement  came  to  nought.* 

In  the  towns  outside  of  Portsmouth,  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty was  experienced  in  dealing  with  country  peddlers  and 
chapmen.  These  men  were  accused  of  contravening  the 
non-importation  and  non-consumption  regulations  and  also 
of  "  tempting  women,  girls  and  boys  with  their  unneces- 
sary fineries."  The  town  of  Exeter  voted  to  permit  no 
itinerant  traders  to  sell  wares  there.^  A  town  meeting  at 
Epsom  established  the  same  regulation  "  upon  no  less 
penalty  than  receiving  a  new  suit  agreeable  to  the  modern 
mode  and  a  forfeiture  of  their  goods."  ^  The  committees  at 
Kingstown,  New  Market  and  Brentwood  announced  that 
the  provincial  law  prohibiting  peddHng  would  now  be 
rigidly  enforced."  When  a  provincial  convention  met  on 
January  25,  they  endorsed  this  last  method  as  the  most 
effective  way  of  coping  with  the  difficulty.^     The  conven- 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1013. 

'  N.  H.  Gas.,  Jan.  27,  1775. 

^  Ibid.,  Feb.  10,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1223. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  251 ;  also  A'.  H.  Gaz.,  Mch.  31.  1775. 

^  Ibid.,  Jan.  6.  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1105-1106. 

*/fciU,  vol.  i,  p.  1105;  also  A^.  H.  Gaz.,  Jan.  20.  1775. 

''  Ibid.,  Jan.  13,  1775. 

^  Ibid.,  Feb.  3,  1775 ;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1182. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  485 

tion  also  issued  an  address  to  the  inhabitants  in  behalf  of 
the  Association  and,  among  other  things,  recommended  the 
immediate  and  total  disuse  of  tea  whether  dutied  or  smug- 
gled. The  people  were  also  urged  to  promote  home  manu- 
factures and  shun  all  forms  of  extravagance.  It  was  not 
until  the  provincial  congress  met  in  May  that  the  subject 
of  local  production  received  further  attention.  Then  linen 
and  woolen  manufactures  were  mentioned  as  being  partic- 
ularly worthy  of  encouragement,  and  farmers  were  enjoined 
to  kill  no  lambs  before  the  first  of  August  following.^ 

The  non-importation  regulation  appears  to  have  been 
well  enforced  in  Rhode  Island.  Several  vessels  intending 
for  the  African  coast  were  actually  laid  up  at  Newport  be- 
cause they  could  not  be  gotten  ready  to  depart  by  Decem- 
ber I."  The  Newport  committee  remitted  to  Boston  the 
sum  of  £5  15s.  3d.  sterling  as  the  profits  of  sales  of  im- 
portations prior  to  February  i,  1775.^  Late  in  January, 
the  committee  at  Providence  auctioned  off  a  quantity  of 
merchandise,  valued  at  £1200  sterling,  imported  from 
Liverpool  by  way  of  New  York,  and  derived  a  profit  of 
£16  6s.  id.  for  the  relief  of  Boston.*  Particular  attention 
was  given  in  Rhode  Island  to  the  regulations  for  the  non- 
exportation  of  sheep.  In  November,  1774,  the  Providence 
committee  exhorted  obedience  to  these  regulations;  a  few 
days  later  they  sent  to  Boston,  as  a  gift,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-six  sheep  that  had  originally  been  intended  for  ex- 
portation to  the  West  Indies  but  which  the  town  had  bought 
instead.^    Until  late  in  February,  Newport  would  not  even 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  651. 

^  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  8,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1098-1099. 
'  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  p.  265. 

*  Bos.  Eve.  Post,  Feb.  20,  1775;  Essex  Gas.,  Mch.  7. 

*  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  p.  154. 


486 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


permit  the  shipment  of  sheep  to  associated  provinces ;  then, 
the  Salem  committee  succeeded  in  pointing  out  the  error 
of  this  interpretation  of  the  Association.^ 

Providence  facihtated  the  enforcement  of  the  non-con- 
sumption regulation  by  requiring  all  dealers  to  show  a 
certificate  that  the  goods  offered  for  sale  conformed  in 
every  way  to  the  specifications  of  the  Association."  On 
March  2,  lyj^,  the  day  after  the  total  disuse  of  tea  became 
effective,  the  event  was  celebrated  at  Providence  by  a  bon- 
fire of  three  hundred  pounds  of  tea  that  had  been  collected 
from  the  inhabitants."  The  situation  in  Rhode  Island  may 
be  summarized  in  the  language  of  the  Newport  committee 
to  their  Philadelphia  brethren :  "  so  far  as  we  can  learn, 
the  Association  hath  been  strictly  adhered  to  by  the  mer- 
chants in  this  colony  .  .  ."  *  Apparently  little  was  done 
to  encourage  manufacturing  or  to  foster  the  simple  life. 
However,  the  graduating  class  at  Rhode  Island  College  in- 
duced the  college  authorities  to  abandon  the  public  com- 
mencement exercises  as  out  of  harmony  with  Article  viii.' 

The  chief  problem  in  Connecticut  was  not  that  of  non- 
importation (for  her  imports  came  largely  by  way  of  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  York),  but  that  of  non-consumption. 
The  Norwich  committee  required  all  dealers  to  comply  with 
the  regulation,  which  was  rapidly  becoming  popular,  of 
vouching  for  the  character  of  new  stock  by  displaying  cer- 
tificates from  whence  the  merchandise  came.^  An  early 
tendency  was  observable  for  prices  to  rise,  due  to  the  fact 

^Pickering  Papers  (M.  H.  S.  Mss.'),  vol.  xxxiii,  p.  122;  vol.  xxxix, 
p.  100. 
'  R.  L  Col.  Rccs.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  285-287. 
^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  15. 
^  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  8,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1099. 

*  Ihid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  935-936. 

•  Conn.  Gaz.,  Dec.  30,  1774. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  487 

that  the  importers  had  sold  to  the  Connecticut  retailers  at 
an  advance  and  the  former  could  not  easily  be  reached  be- 
cause of  their  residence  in  other  provinces.  On  January  25, 
T775.  a  joint  meeting  of  committees  of  inspection  of  Hart- 
ford County  resolved  that,  even  if  the  importers  violated 
the  Association,  the  retailers  should  not  be  excused,  and 
that  no  better  rule  could  be  fixed  regarding  prices  than  Ar- 
ticle ix  of  the  Association/  A  few  days  later  the  com- 
mittee of  inspection  at  Farmington  in  the  same  county  ob- 
tained from  James  Percival,  a  local  dealer,  a  written  con- 
fession of  his  guilt  in  violating  this  regulation  and  a 
promise  to  deposit  his  surplus  profit  with  the  committee  for 
use  of  the  Boston  unfortunate."  The  same  action  with  re- 
spect to  prices  was  taken  by  the  counties  of  New  Haven. 
Fairfield  and  Litchfield.  All  these  counties  also  directed 
attention  to  the  importance  of  improving  sheep,  raising  flax 
and  encouraging  manufactures."'' 

As  Connecticut  possessed  no  commercial  metropolis, 
special  effort  was  made  in  that  province  to  standardize  the 
practice  of  trying  persons  accused  of  transgressing  the 
Association  in  the  several  small  river  and  coast  towns.  The 
movement  was  set  on  foot,  it  would  appear,  at  the  meeting 
of  the  committees  of  inspection  of  Hartford  County  on 
January  25.  In  executing  the  Association,  it  was  there 
agreed  that  proceedings  against  an  accused  should  be  con- 
ducted in  an  "open,  candid  and  deliberate  manner;"  that 
formal  summons  should  be  served  upon  him.  containing  the 
nature  of  the  charge,  with  an  invitation  to  defend  himself 
before  the  committee  at  some  time  not  sooner  than  six  days 
later ;  that  witnesses  and  other  evidence  should  be  "  openly, 
fairly  and  fully  heard:"  and  that  no  conviction  should  be 

^  Conn.  Cour.,  Jan.  30,  1775. 

'  Ibid.,  Feb.  13,  1775. 

*  Ibid.,  Feb.  27,  1775  ;  Conn.  Journ.,  Mch.  8. 


488  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

made  ''  but  upon  the  fullest,  clearest  and  most  convincing- 
proof."  ^  The  same  mode  of  procedure  was  adopted  by  the 
counties  of  New  Haven,  Fairfield  and  Litchfield. - 

Trials  of  offenders  by  the  committees  of  inspection  bore 
every  evidence  of  being  fair  and  impartial  hearings,  al- 
though mistakes  were  occasionally  made.  In  March  three 
men  failed  to  appear  before  the  Fairfield  committee  who 
had  been  summoned  to  answer  charges;  and  upon  an  e.r 
parte  examination  the  committee  held  unanimously  that  the 
accused  were  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  Association  and 
should  forfeit  all  commercial  connections  with  the  com- 
munity. Five  weeks  later,  two  of  the  men  came  before  the 
committee,  proved  their  innocence  and  were  restored  to 
public  favor."  At  Guilford  Captain  Griffin  appeared  be- 
fore the  committee  and  demanded  that  his  character  be 
cleared  of  the  aspersions  cast  upon  it  by  a  letter  from 
Martinique,  which  had  been  printed  in  the  Journal  and 
which  accused  him  of  having  violated  Article  vii  by  taking 
fourteen  sheep  to  Martinique.  After  investigation  the 
committee  decided  that  Griffin  was  not  guilty  and  recom- 
mended him  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  the  public* 
In  general,  the  view  expressed  by  Thomas  Mumford  of 
Groton  to  Silas  Deane  in  October,  1775,  may  be  accepted 
as  correct :  "  This  Colony  universally  adheres  to  all  the 
Resolves  of  Congress."  ^  Even  in  Fairfield  County,  where, 
it  will  be  recalled,  the  greatest  disaffection  existed,  the 
principal  towns  were  actively  engaged  in  executing  the 
Association. 

^  Conn.  Cour.,  Jan.  30,  1775. 
^  Ibid.,  Feb.  27,  1775;  Conn.  Journ.,  Mch.  8. 
'  Conn.  Gaz.,  Apr.  4,  May  12,  1775. 

*A^.  Y.  Gas.,  Apr.  3,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  222. 
*  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  p.  310.     Vide  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol. 
ii,  pp.  252-253. 


LV  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  489 

In  New  York  province  the  responsibility  of  enforcing 
the  non-importation  regulation  rested  with  the  Committee 
of  Sixty  at  the  port  of  entry.  However,  the  first  occasion 
for  enforcement  of  the  Association  was  the  attempt  of  an 
inconsiderate  citizen  to  ship  some  sheep  to  the  West  Indies. 
The  shipment  was  prevented  through  the  energy  of  a  group 
of  inhabitants  who  acted  without  consulting  the  Committee 
of  "  Fifty-One,"  then  still  in  office.^  A  few  days  later  the 
distillers  of  the  city  signified  their  hearty  approval  of  the 
pending  non-importation  by  resolving  to  distill  no  molasses 
imported  from  the  British  West  Indies  or  Dominica  nor  to 
sell  any  rum  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  slave 
traffic.^  In  the  two  months  prior  to  February  i,  1775,  the 
Committee  of  Sixty  showed  a  record  of  astonishing  activ- 
ity. Their  official  report  testifies  that  they  conducted  auc- 
tions for  the  sale  of  goods  imported  in  twenty-one  vessels, 
as  well  as  for  the  sale  of  a  trunk  of  calicoes  imported  from 
London  by  way  of  Philadelphia.^  These  cargoes  were 
made  up  of  a  variety  of  articles  representing  many  quarters 
of  the  globe  and  evidencing  the  colorful  romance  of  colo- 
nial commerce.  A  great  deal  of  space  was  taken  up  in  the 
newspapers  by  announcements  of  sales.  The  greatest  profit 
arose  from  the  sale  of  merchandise  brought  in  the  large 
London  ship  Lady  Gage,  from  which  £182  iSs.  was  cleared 
for  Boston.  In  a  number  of  cases  the  selling  price  covered 
merely  the  first  cost  and  charges.  The  total  profits  from  all 
sales  amounted  to  £347  4s.  id. 

After  February  i  the  Sixty  displayed  equal  diligence  in 
returning  cargoes  without  breaking  bulk.  For  the  purpose 
of  facilitating  this  work  a  sub-committee  was  appointed  to 
supervise  the  arrival  of  all  vessels.*    The  most  difficult  case 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  963;  also  .V.  Y.  Jourru,  Nov.  10.  1774. 
'  Ibid.,  Nov.  10,  1774. 

^  Ihid.,  Apr.  27,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  342-343- 
*  N.  Y.  Jourti.,  Feb.  2,  1775. 


^go  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

of  enforcement  proved  to  be  that  of  a  vessel  that  arrived  on 
the  second  day  of  the  new  dispensation.  This  was  the  ship 
James,  commanded  by  Captain  \\'atson  and  bringing  a 
cargo  of  coal  and  dry^goods  from  Glasgow.  The  captain 
was  promptly  warned  by  the  sub-committee  not  to  enter  at 
the  custom  house  and  not  to  delay  in  departing  with  his 
cargo  unbroken.  But  the  loyalists  were  determined  to 
make  this  a  trial  of  strength;  and  although  the  consignees 
refused  to  appeal  to  the  authorities  for  aid.  they  obtained 
the  not  unwilling  ear  of  Captain  Watson  and  employed  men 
to  go  aboard  and  bring  the  colors  ashore  with  a  view  to 
raising  a  posse  to  assist  in  landing  the  goods.  A  great  mob 
assembled  on  the  shore :  and  the  captain,  much  alarmed, 
dropped  down  about  four  miles  below  the  city,  where  he 
remained  several  days  attended  by  a  boat  containing  repre- 
sentatives of  the  committee.  On  Thursday  evening,  the 
ninth,  the  ship  reappeared  in  the  harbor  escorted  by  an 
officer  and  some  men  belonging  to  the  royal  vessel  King- 
fisher, which  had  just  come  on  the  scene.  The  people  again 
assembled  in  great  numbers,  seized  the  captain  who  was 
lodging  in  town,  and  paraded  him  about  the  streets  until 
he  was  glad  to  flee  to  the  man-of-war.  After  two  days  of 
sober  reflection  he  prepared  to  depart  with  his  ship,  but  was 
now  ordered  to  desist  by  an  overzealous  lieutenant  from  the 
Kinfffisher.  Again  the  people  collected ;  and  the  captain  of 
the  Kingfisher,  hearing  of  the  unauthorized  act  of  the  lieu- 
tenant, permitted  the  departure  of  the  James.  That  vessel 
was  watched  far  beyond  Sandy  Hook,  as  she  swept  out  to 
sea.  b}.'  the  committee's  boat.^ 

The  vigilance  of  the  Sixty  was  again  tested  later  in  the 
month  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Beulah  from  London.  After 
lying  at  anchor  for  almost  three  weeks  in  an  effort  to  elude 

'^N.  Y.  Journ.,  Feb.  9.  16.  1775;  Pa.  Joitni..  Feb.  8;  Golden.  Letter 
Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  389. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  491 

the  watchfulness  of  the  committee's  boat,  the  vessel  fell 
down  to  Sandy  Hook  to  await  a  favorable  wind  for  the 
return  voyage.  After  two  days'  delay,  she  put  to  sea. 
Word  quickly  reached  the  Sixty  that,  under  shelter  of  dark- 
ness, a  boat  from  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  had  taken  oflf 
some  goods  while  the  ship  lingered  at  the  Hook.  Investi- 
gation was  at  once  undertaken  by  the  Elizabethtown  com- 
mittee, and  the  truth  of  the  case  was  being  ferreted  out 
when  Robert  and  John  Murray,  merchants  of  New  York, 
appeared  before  the  Sixty  and  confessed  that  they  were  the 
principals  in  the  affair.  The  return  of  the  Beulah  with  an 
unbroken  cargo  meant  great  financial  loss  to  them,  but  it  is 
evident  that  they  feared  the  blast  of  the  boycott  even  more 
greatly.  They  made  a  sworn  statement  of  the  goods  that 
had  been  landed  and  promised  to  re-ship  them  in  seven 
days'  time.  Finally,  to  propitiate  public  feeling,  they  sub- 
scribed £200  for  the  repair  of  the  hospital,  recently  dam- 
aged by  fire.  The  Sixty  published  these  facts  without  com- 
ment; and  the  Elizabethtown  committee  proscribed  John 
Murray,  and  his  son-in-law  of  that  town — the  actual  par- 
ticipants in  the  affair — as  violators  of  the  Association.^ 

The  Sixty  exhibited  less  concern  about  the  advancing  of 
prices.  While  the  First  Continental  Congress  was  yet  in 
session,  the  old  "  Fifty-One  "  had  taken  cognizance  of  the 
discontent  arising  from  "  the  exorbitant  price  to  which  sun- 
dry articles  of  goods,  particularly  some  of  the  necessaries 
of  life,"  had  advanced  in  anticipation  of  non-importation; 
and  they  had  induced  a  meeting  of  importers  at  the  Ex- 
change to  agree  to  maintain  prices  at  the  usual  level,  dis- 
courage engrossing,  and  to  boycott  retailers  who  acted  con- 

*  .V.  Y.  Jount.,  Feb.  23,  Mch.  9,  22,  Apr.  6,  1775.  The  son-in-law 
was  restored  to  public  favor,  after  public  contrition,  by  act  of  the 
New  Jersey  provincial  congress,  Oct.  24,  1775.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii, 
p.  1232.     For  the  later  historj'  of  the  Murrays,  ride  infra,  p.  565  and  n.  i. 


492  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

trariwise/  Nevertheless,  by  January,  claims  were  made  in 
the  leading  loyalist  organ  that  prices  had  actually  risen. 
Thus,  coarse  osnaburgs  were  said  to  have  advanced  a  full 
third  in  the  hands  of  the  wholesaler;  the  price  of  coarse 
linens  and  Russia  sheetings  had  increased  also.^  These 
allegations  may  not  have  fairly  represented  the  situation,  or 
else  the  committee  may  have  thought  it  unwise  to  supervise 
the  merchants  too  closely  on  this  point.  In  any  case  the 
Sixty  paid  no  attention  to  the  charges. 

An  obvious  effort  was  made  to  simplify  the  standard  of 
living.  When  Mrs.  Margaret  Duane  died  early  in  January, 
her  remains  were  interred  in  accordance  with  the  directions 
of  Article  viii."  The  London  ship  Lady  Gage  brought  two 
puppet  shows  to  New  York ;  and  in  the  midst  of  their  first 
performances,  a  committee  of  citizens  stopped  the  proceed- 
ings and,  while  the  audiences  dispersed  in  much  confusion, 
secured  the  promise  of  the  managers  not  to  show  again.* 

The  project  of  establishing  local  manufacturers  on  some 
systematic  plan  attracted  little  interest  at  first.  When,  how- 
ever, some  enterprising  Philadelphians  established  a  manu- 
facturing company  a  few  months  later,  the  Sixty  decided 
to  make  use  of  the  same  plan,  under  the  name  "  The  New 
York  Society  for  employing  the  Industrious  Poor  and  Pro- 
moting Manufactory."  The  object  was  to  manufacture 
woolens,  linens,  cottons  and  nails ;  but  subscriptions  for 
stock  failed  to  materialize,  and  it  was  not  until  January, 
1776,  that  a  partial  trial  of  the  scheme  was  made  possible 
by  a  subsidy  granted  by  the  committee  of  safety  at  New 
York  city."  This  was  too  late  to  be  of  any  practical  use 
because  of  the  British  occupancy  of  the  city  soon  after. 

^  N.  Y.  Gas.,  Oct.  10,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  328. 
'  N.  F.  Gazetteer,  Jan.  19,  26,  Apr.  6,  1775. 

'.v.  Y.  Gas.,  Jan.  16,  1775.  *N.  Y.  Journ..  Dec.  15.  1774. 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  1263-1264.  1424-1426;  Constitutional  Gas., 
Jan.  27,  1776. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


493 


Apart  from  the  three  rural  counties  of  Albany,  Ulster 
and  Suffolk,  the  outlying  districts  were  not  at  this  time 
sufficiently  organized  to  enforce  the  non-consumption  reg- 
ulations. It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  energy  and 
intelligence  of  the  Sixty  at  the  metropolis  reduced  the  im- 
portance of  such  enforcement,  inasmuch  as  foreign  wares 
seldom,  if  ever,  penetrated  that  far.  Probably  the  worst 
infractions  occurred  in  the  matter  of  tea  drinking  after 
March  i,  when  no  tea  either  dutied  or  smuggled  was  to  be 
consumed.  On  April  7,  Jacobus  Low  of  Kingston  in  Ulster 
County  was  proscribed  by  the  Kingston  committee  as  the 
only  dealer  in  town  who  would  not  refuse  to  sell  tea.  A 
long  and  somewhat  abusive  controversy  ensued;  but  at  the 
end  of  two  months  Low  appeared  before  the  committee  and 
made  all  the  concessions  they  required.^  — 

Since  the  mercantile  houses  of  New  York  city  were  the 
feeders  for  the  country  stores  of  Connecticut  and  New  Jer- 
sey, the  inviolability  of  the  non-importation  in  the  metrop- 
olis was  trebly  important.  That  it  was  well  kept  the  fore- 
going incidents  testify.  A  group  of  conservatives  in 
Dutchess  and  Westchester  Counties  sought  to  promote  a 
loyalist  association  for  personal  liberty,  modeled  on  Briga- 
dier Ruggles's  association  in  Massachusetts ;  but  it  made  no 
headway.'  Lieutenant  Governor  Colden,  who  had  orig- 
inally been  skeptical  of  the  success  of  the  Continental  Asso- 
ciation, uttered  a  dependable  judgment  when  he  wrote  on 
March  i  :  "  the  non  importation  association  of  the  Con- 
gress is  ever  rigidly  maintained  in  this  Place."  ^ 

The  spirit  of  the  New  Jersey  associators  has  already  been 
suggested  by  the  conduct  of  the  Elizabethtown  committee 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  298,  448.  548,  917. 

"^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1 164;  .V.  Y.  Gaz.,  Mch.  20,  1775. 

*  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  389.     Vide  also  ibid.,  pp.  369-370.  373- 


494 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


in  the  Murray  affair.  On  December  6,  1774,  Governor 
Franklin  informed  the  home  government  that :  "Altho'  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Congress  are  not  altogether  satisfactory 
to  many  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Colonies,  yet  there  seems 
at  present  little  Reason  to  doubt  but  that  the  Terms  of 
Association  will  be  generally  carried  into  Execution,  even 
by  those  who  dislike  Parts  of  it.  But  few  have  the  Courage 
to  declare  their  Disapprobation  publickly,  as  they  all  know, 
if  they  do  not  conform,  they  are  in  Danger  of  becoming 
Objects  of  popular  Resentment,  from  which  it  is  not  in 
the  Power  of  Government  here  to  protect  them."  ^  The 
public  meetings  of  Gloucester  County  and  of  Woodbridge 
Township  in  Middlesex  County  expressly  instructed  their 
committees  of  observation  that  they  should  "  as  carefully 
attend  to  and  pursue  the  rules  and  directions  for  their  gov- 
ernment ...  set  forth  in  the  said  association,  as  they 
would  if  the  same  had  been  enacted  into  a  law  by  the  legis- 
lature of  this  province.''  ^ 

The  committees  had  to  devote  very  little  time  to  the  pre- 
vention of  importation  because  of  the  absence  of  any  good 
ports.  However,  a  consignment  of  merchandise,  which 
had  come  by  way  of  New  York  in  the  Lady  Gage,  was  sold 
at  auction  at  New  Brunswick;  and  another  importation 
from  Bristol  in  the  Fair  Lady  via  the  same  port  was  sold 
at  Elizabethtown.^  An  effort  was  made  to  land  secretly  a 
quantity  of  dutied  tea  at  Greenwich  in  Cumberland  County. 
The  consignment  was  seized  by  some  inhabitants ;  and  while 
the  committee  of  observation  was  gravely  deliberating  as  to 
its  disposition,  Indians  a  la  Boston  made  a  bonfire  of  it."* 

^  /  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  p.  503. 

^  Pa.  Gas.,  Dec.  21,  1774;  4  Am.  Anh.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1102-1103. 

*  N.   Y.  Journ.,  Jan.  19,  26,  1775. 

*  Pa.  Packet,  Jan.  19,  1775;  Andrews,  F.  D..  Tea-Burners  of  Cumber- 
land County  (Vineland,  N.  J.,  1908). 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


495 


In  February  the  committees  of  observation  of  Elizabetli- 
town  and  Wcocibridge  suspended  commercial  intercourse 
with  the  obdurate  inhabitants  of  nearby  Staten  Island,  who 
had  neglected  to  join  the  Association.^ 

Of  the  various  committees  that  passed  resolutions  in  be- 
half of  economy  and  home  production,  the  Hanover  com- 
mittee in  Morris  County  established  the  most  comprehen- 
sive regulations.  They  promised  to  take  note  of  all  horse- 
racing,  cock-fighting  and  gambling  and  to  prosecute  the 
offenders  in  accordance  with  the  law.  To  Article  vii  of  the 
Association  they  added  the  requirements  that  no  sheep 
should  be  taken  from  the  county  without  the  committee's 
permission  and  that  no  sheep  should  be  killed  until  it  was 
four  years  old.  They  recommended  the  wade  cultivation  of 
flax  and  hemp,  and  inveighed  against  any  dealers  who 
should  advance  prices.' 

An  illustration  of  the  effectiveness  of  the  boycott  was 
accorded  b}'  the  action  of  Silas  Newcomb,  a  member  of  the 
Cumberland  Cuunty  committee,  in  announcing  voluntarily 
on  March  6  that  he  had  been  drinking  tea  in  his  family 
since  March  i  and  that  he  proposed  to  continue  the  prac- 
tice. All  dealings  were  thereupon  broken  off  with  him ; 
and  on  May  1 1  he  appeared  before  the  committee  and  made 
an  abject  apolog}^  for  his  offense;  that  body  accepted  his 
"  recantation."  " 

In  Pennsylvania  the  chief  obstacle  to  a  perfect  execution 
of  the  Association  was  the  hostility  of  the  Quaker  merchant 
aristocracy  at  Philadelphia,  the  only  port  of  entry.  These 
men  were  too  shrewd  to  expose  themselves  to  the  rigors  of 

•A',   y.  Journ.,  Feb.   i6,  Mch.  9.   1775:  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
1234-1235,   1249. 
^  [bid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1240-1241;  also  -V.   V.  Journ.,  Feb.  23.  1775. 
'■4  An:.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  34-35- 


496  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  boycott  through  personal  infractions  of  the  Association; 
but,  being  wealthy  and  influential  members  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  they  were  able  to  conduct  a  campaign  against 
the  Association  by  controlling  the  official  utterances  of  that 
organization. 

As  early  as  May  30,  1774,  the  day  before  the  Boston 
Port  Act  became  effective,  the  several  meetings  of  the  soci- 
ety in  Philadelphia  joined  in  declaring  that,  if  any  Quakers 
had  countenanced  the  plan  of  suspending  all  business  on 
June  I,  '*  they  have  manifested  great  inattention  to  our  re- 
ligious principles  and  profession,  and  acted  contrary  to  the 
rules  of  Christian  discipline  established  for  the  preservation 
of  order  and  good  government  among  us."  ^  In  the  follow- 
ing months  the  constant  effort  of  the  Quaker  leaders,  in 
striking  contrast  with  earlier  years,  was  to  keep  the  members 
of  the  society  clear  of  radical  activities.  "  This  has  occa- 
sioned no  small  care  and  labor,"  wrote  James  Pemberton 
on  November  6,  "  but  has  been  so  far  of  service  that  I  hope 
it  may  be  said  we  are  generally  clear;  tho'  there  have  been 
instances  of  some  few  who  claim  a  right  of  membership 
with  us  that  have  not  kept  within  such  limits  and  bounds 
as  we  could  wish."  '  Joseph  Reed,  fixed  in  his  singleness 
of  purpose,  seriously  impugned  their  sincerity.  They  "  act 
their  usual  part,"  he  wrote  on  the  same  day  as  Pemberton's 
letter.  "  They  have  directed  their  members  not  to  serve  on 
the  Committee,  and  mean  to  continue  the  same  undecisive, 
neutral  conduct  until  they  see  how  the  scale  is  like  to  pre- 
ponderate. .  .  .  But  American  Liberty  in  the  mean  time 
must  take  her  chance  with  them."  ^ 

Finally,  on  December  15,  a  meeting  for  sufferings  at 
Philadelphia  appointed  a  committee  to  wait  on  the  Quaker 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  365-366. 

'  Sharpless,  Quakers  in  Revolution,  p.  108. 

'^  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  963-964. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


497 


members  of  the  provincial  assembly  and  reprimand  them 
for  having  given  their  votes  to  a  resolution  ratifying  the 
doings  of  the  Continental  Congress  five  days  earlier/  This 
was  preliminary  to  the  action  taken  by  the  meeting  for 
sufferings  for  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  held  at  Phila- 
delphia on  January  5,  1775.  At  this  meeting  disapproval 
was  expressed  of  the  measures  which  were  being  prosecuted 
against  Great  Britain,  and  all  members  of  the  society  were 
earnestly  requested  to  avoid  joining  in  such  measures  as 
inconsistent  with  their  religious  principles."  A  gathering 
of  Quaker  representatives  from  the  two  provinces  later  in 
the  month  was  even  more  explicit  in  their  "  testimony  " 
against  "  every  usurpation  of  power  and  authority  in  op- 
position to  the  Laws  and  Government,  and  against  all  Com- 
binations, Insurrections,  Conspiracies  and  Illegal  Assem- 
blages." ' 

Many  members  differed  with  the  official  utterances  of  the 
society,  some  perhaps  because  they  had  increased  their 
stocks  in  anticipation  of  the  non-importation,  many  others 
because  they  could  not  see  why  they  should  abstain  from 
extra-legal  activities  at  this  juncture  inasmuch  as  Quakers 
had  been  leaders  in  commercial  combinations  against  Great 
Britain  during  Stamp  Act  times.  A  contemporary  noted 
that  the  Quakers  were  divided ;  that  many  of  them  disap- 
proved of  the  Testimony,  just  alluded  to,  and  indeed  that 
the  Testimony  had  been  adopted  by  a  gathering  of  only 
tv/enty-six  people.*  "  B.  L.,"  writing  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Journal  of  February  i,  1775.  reasoned  blandly  that  the 
Testimony  could  not  have  been  directed  against  extra-legal 

'  Sharpless,  0/'.  cit.,  p.  107. 

"  N.  Y.  Gaz.,  Jan.  30,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1093-1094. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1176-1177;  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  8.  1775. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1270. 


498 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


measures,  since  that  supposition  would  condemn  the  very- 
meeting  which  had  issued  the  paper,  and  since  James  Pem- 
berton,  the  secretary  of  the  meeting,  was  well  known  as  an 
active  participant  in  the  selection  of  the  committee  last 
summer.  The  upshot  was  that  the  Society  of  Friends  was 
not  able  to  fasten  an  official  stigma  on  the  radical  measures 
nor  to  control  the  actions  of  all  of  its  members,  although  it 
continued  to  seek  to  do  so. 

The  Committee  of  Sixty-Six  at  Philadelphia  made  care- 
ful arrangements  for  the  enforcement  of  the  non-importa- 
tion regulation.  The  membership  of  the  committee  was 
divided  into  six  districts,  and  one  person  from  each  district 
was  required  to  attend  every  morning  at  the  London  Coffee 
House  to  inspect  the  arrival  of  vessels.^  All  importers  after 
December  i  were  warned  to  consult  with  this  sub-committee 
as  to  whether  new  merchandise  should  be  stored,  auctioned 
off,  or  re-shipped.  Detailed  regulations  were  laid  down  for 
public  sales,  such  as,  for  instance,  that  in  ordinary  cases  no 
lots  worth  more  than  £15  sterling  nor  less  than  £3  sterling 
should  be  offered  for  sale.^ 

Unfortunately  no  record  has  been  found  in  the  news- 
papers or  elsewhere  of  the  performance  of  the  committee  in 
the  first  two  months  of  the  non-importation;  but  that  the 
committee  was  faithful  to  its  trust  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
"  There  seems  to  be  too  general  a  disposition  every  where 
to  adhere  strictly  to  the  Resolutions  of  the  Congress,"  wrote 
Deputy  Governor  Penn  on  December  31.^  The  Sixty-Six 
declared  on  February  16,  1775,  that  they  had  "not  met 
with  the  least  impediment  or  obstruction  in  carrying  into 
execution  any  one  Resolution  of  the  Continental  Congress," 

^  Pa.  Gas.,  Dec.  7,  1774;  also  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  Dec.  15. 
^ Pa.  Gaz.,  Dec.  14,  1774;  also  Essex  Journ.,  Dec.  28. 
^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1081. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


499 


although,  like  in  every  community,  there  were  persons  who, 
placing  private  interest  against  public  good,  had  a  malig- 
nant pleasure  in  stirring  up  dissension.^  ''  The  Non  Im- 
portation is  Strictly  adheard  to  .  .  .  ,"  wrote  Eliza  Far- 
mar  on  February  17:  "all  ships  that  came  in  after  the 
first  of  Deer,  the  goods  were  deliverd  to  the  Commities  to 
be  sold  by  Auction  agreeable  to  the  order  of  the  Congress."  ^ 

After  February  i  the  newspapers  from  time  to  time 
published  instances  of  the  return  of  cargoes  without  break- 
ing bulk.  So,  with  some  pipes  of  Madeira  wine  that  arrived 
early  in  February;  and  so,  also,  with  a  large  consignment 
of  Irish  beef  which  arrived  in  April. ^  "  All  Ships  with 
goods  after  the  ist  of  this  month  are  not  Sufferd  to  un- 
load," reported  Eliza  Farmar  in  the  letter  noted  above : 
"  several  have  been  obliged  to  go  to  the  West  Indies." 

It  would  appear  likely  that  the  Sixty-Six  showed  some 
laxity  in  the  regulation  of  prices;  and  this  may  have  been 
done  to  appease  the  merchants  in  order  to  accomplish  the 
larger  purposes  of  the  non-importation.  While  the  First 
Continental  Congress  was  still  sitting,  it  was  charged  that 
pins  had  advanced  to  15s.  a  pack,  pepper  to  3s.  6d.  a  pound, 
etc.,  in  anticipation  of  a  suspension  of  trade.*  On  Novem- 
ber 30.  the  Sixty-Six  took  official  notice  of  advances  made 
by  "  a  few  persons  "  and  recommended  to  the  public  that 
the  boycott,  prescribed  by  Article  ix  in  such  cases,  should 
be  promptly  carried  out.''  The  provincial  convention  in 
January  added  the  weight  of  its  influence  to  this  timely 

^ -V.  v.  Gas.,  Mch.  31,  1775;  also  -/  Avt.  Arrh..  vol.  i,  p.  1243.  An 
abusive  reply  to  the  committee's  assertion  did  not  deny  that  the  non- 
importation had  been  faithfully  observed.     Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  238-242. 

'  Pa.  Mag.,  vol.  xl,  pp.  202-203. 

» Pa.  Packet,  Feb,  13,  i775;  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  Apr.  20. 

*  Letter  in  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Oct.  6.  1774. 

*  Pa.  Gaz..  Nov.  30,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  loio. 


^OO  '^tiE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

advice.^  However,  in  March,  1775,,  it  was  freely  charged 
that  the  drygoods  merchants  were,  without  the  least  oppo- 
sition, asking  prices  for  goods  representing  an  increase  of 
twenty-five  to  one  hundred  per  cent  over  former  prices ;  ^ 
and  as  late  as  September  of  the  same  year  Chase  declared 
publicly  in  the  Second  Congress  that  prices  had  been  ad- 
vanced fifty  per  cent  in  Philadelphia.^ 

The  spirit  of  the  enforcement  outside  of  the  city  was  in- 
dicated by  the  resolution  of  the  provincial  convention  that, 
if  opposition  should  be  offered  to  any  committee  of  obser- 
vation, the  committees  of  the  other  counties  should  render 
all  the  assistance  in  their  power  to  keep  the  Association 
inviolate/ 

The  distinctive  feature  of  the  working  of  the  Association 
in  Pennsylvania  was  the  importance  that  was  given  to  the 
development  of  home  production  and  to  the  introduction 
of  simpler  modes  of  living.  Community  sentiment  was  well 
fertilized  for  such  an  undertaking  by  the  religious  teachings 
of  the  Friends  as  well  as  by  the  homely  maxims  of  "  Poor 
Richard  "  through  a  long  period  of  years.  The  funeral 
regulations,  recommended  by  Congress,  were  well  observed, 
even  such  a  prominent  man  as  Thomas  Lawrence,  ex-maycr 
of  Philadelphia,  being  buried  in  accordance  with  these 
directions.^  The  Sixty-Six  on  November  30  recommended 
that  no  ewe-mutton  be  purchased  or  eaten  in  the  country 
until  May  i.  1775,  and  none  after  that  day  until  October  i, 
and  that  thereafter  none  at  all  should  be  used.  Notices  in 
English  and  German  were  published  throughout  the  prov- 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1172;  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  i,  1775. 

*  "An  Englishman,"  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  239. 

*  Adams,  J..  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  447. 

*  Pa.  Journ..  Feb.  i,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1170. 
'Pa.  Journ.,  Jan.  25,  1775. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES  501 

ince  to  warn  the  country  people  against  selling  sheep  to 
butchers  contrary  to  the  regulation/  Sixty-six  butchers  of 
Philadelphia  agreed  to  be  bound  by  the  recommendation  of 
the  committee,  and  the  butchers  of  Reading  signed  a  similar 
agreement.^  In  January  the  provincial  convention  resolved 
unanimously  that  after  the  first  of  JMarch  no  sheep  under 
four  years  of  age  should  be  killed  or  sold,  except  in  cases 
of  extreme  necessity.' 

The  provincial  convention  made  many  recommendations 
respecting  the  commodities  and  wares  which  the  province 
seemed  best  fitted  to  produce.  Raw  wool  should  be  utilized 
in  the  making  of  coatings,  flannels,  blankets,  hosiery  and 
coarse  cloths;  and  dyes  should  be  obtained  from  the  culti- 
vation of  madder,  woad  and  other  dye  stuffs.  Of  the 
farther-reaching  proposals  v/ere  the  recommendations  that 
fulling-mills  should  be  erected,  and  mills  should  be  estab- 
lished for  the  manufacture  of  woolcombs  and  cards,  of  steel, 
nails  and  wire,  of  paper,  of  gunpowder,  of  copper  kettles 
and  tinplates.  As  the  demand  for  Pennsylvania-made  glass 
exceeded  the  supply,  it  was  recommended  that  more  glass 
factories  be  established.  To  carry  these  proposals  more 
speedily  into  effect,  local  societies  should  be  established, 
and  premiums  awarded  in  the  various  counties.*  The  Bed- 
ford County  Committee,  among  others,  acted  on  these  rec- 
ommendations a  few  weeks  later,  and  offered  five  pounds 
to  the  person  who  erected  the  first  fulling-mill  in  the  county^ 

'  Because  several  city  butchers  had  a  stock  of  sheep  on  hand,  the 
regulation  was  not  to  become  operative  until  January  i  in  Philadelphia. 
Pa.  Gas.,  Nov.  30,  Dec.  21,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  loio. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1050-1051.  1144:  also  Pa.  Gaz..  Dec.  21,  1774.  and 
Pa.  Journ.,  Jan.  25,  1775. 

^  Ibid.,  Feb.  i,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1171. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1171-1172;  also  Pa.  Journ.,  Feb.  i,  1775.  ^ 


502 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


and  four  smaller  money  prizes  to  the  persons  making  the 
best  pieces  of  linen  cloth  within  a  given  period/ 

The  most  ambitious  venture  of  this  character  was  the 
United  Company  of  Philadelphia  for  Promoting  American 
Manufactures,  established  in  March,  1775.  The  company 
was  financed  through  the  sale  of  stock  at  ten  pounds  a 
share;  and  the  efforts  of  the  company  were  devoted  to  the 
manufacture  of  woolen,  cotton  and  linen  textiles.  Daniel 
Roberdeau  was  chosen  first  president.  At  the  start,  some 
mistakes  were  made,  owing  to  the  inexperience  of  the  man- 
agers; but  soon  nearly  four  hundred  spinners  were  em- 
ployed, and  at  the  end  of  six  months  the  board  of  managers 
announced  that  the  enterprise  was  not  only  practicable  but 
promised  to  be  profitable  for  the  stockholders.  More  stock 
was  then  sold  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  the  company's  opera- 
tions." 

In  the  light  of  this  array  of  facts,  the  announcement, 
made  on  February  2y,  1775,  by  the  Sixty-Six  testifying  to 
"  the  imiform  spirit  and  conduct  of  the  people  in  the  faith- 
ful execution  "  of  the  Association,  and  a  private  statement, 
made  on  the  same  day,  that  the  "  City  Committee  have  sub- 
dued all  opposition  to  their  Measures,"  bear  the  stamp  of 
truth.''  As  President  Roberdeau  of  the  United  Company  of 
Philadelphia  put  it,  "  The  Resolves  of  the  Congress  have 
been  executed  with  a  fidelity  hardly  known  to  laws  in  any 
Country  .  .  ."  * 

Possessing    no    important    commercial    connections,    it 

'    Pa.  Journ.,  Mch.  8,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1226-1227. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1256-1257;  vol.  ii.  pp.  140-144;  vol.  iii,  pp.  73^  820- 
821 ;  also  Pa.  Gaz.,  Feb.  22,  Aug.  9,  1775,  and  Pa.  Journ..  Mch.  22, 
Sept.  27. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1269,  1270. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  141;  also  Pa.  Ledger,  Apr.  15,  1775. 


IN  THE  COMMERCIAL  PROVINCES 


503 


would  appear  that  the  Association  went  quietly  into  force 
in  the  Lower  Counties  on  the  Delaware.  If  any  decided 
opposition  developed  in  Sussex  County,  where  no  committee 
was  yet  appointed,  no  record  of  it  remains.  In  Newcastle 
and  Kent,  the  chief  attention  was  given  to  carrying  out  the 
popular  Pennsylvania  regulation  regarding  the  conservation 
of  sheep  and  to  the  elimination  of  extravagance  and  dissi- 
pation.^ Letters  written  to  Philadelphia  in  February  de- 
clared that  "  the  greatest  unanimity  subsists  in  putting  into 
force  the  Resolves  of  the  Continental  Congress."  " 

*  E.  g.,  vide  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1022;  Niles,  Prins.  &  Acts,  p.  239. 
'Fa.  Jonrn.,  Feb.  15,  1775- 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Five  Months  of  the  Association  in  the  Plantation 
Provinces.     General  Conclusions 

The  problem  of  enforcing  the  Continental  Association 
in  the  plantation  provinces  differed  in  one  respect  markedly 
from  that  in  the  commercial  provinces.  *The  old  antagon- 
ism between  merchant  and  planter  —  between  creditor  and 
debtor  —  that  had  raised  its  forbidding  head  at  various 
times  during  the  previous  years,  had  now  become  more 
acute.  The  conditions,  imposed  by  a  non-intercourse,  in- 
creased the  difficulties  of  the  planters  to  repay  their  obliga- 
tions; and  the  economic  dominance  of  the  merchants  and 
factors  made  it  necessary  that  their  power  be  broken  before 
the  Association  could  be  successfully  administered.  The 
plantation  provinces  thus,  without  exception,  resorted  to 
extreme  measures  against  the  merchant-creditors.  - 

The  execution  of  the  non-importation  and  non-consump- 
tion regulations  in  Maryland  was  somewhat  complicated  by 
the  fact  that  there  were  more  than  twenty  rivers  in  the 
province  navigable  by  large  ships.  However,  commerce 
centered  naturally  at  Baltimore  and  Annapolis;  and  the 
zeal  and  watchfulness  of  the  radicals  probably  reduced 
evasions  of  the  /Association  to  a  minimum  in  all  parts  of 
the  province. 

It  was  well  understood  that  the  merchant  and  factor  class 
were  likely  to  be  the  most  pertinacious  offenders  against  the 
Association,  and  therefore  the  Maryland  convention,  meet- 
ing in  December,  1774.  resolved  that  lawyers  should  prose- 
504 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  505 

cute  no  suits  for  violators  of  the  Association,  and  that,  if 
the  violator  were  a  factor,  lawyers  should  not  conduct  debt 
prosecutions  for  the  store  of  which  he  was  manager.^  In- 
fluenced in  the  interval  by  the  example  of  Virginia,  where 
the  mercantile  interests  were  even  more  deeply  intrenched, 
the  Maryland  convention  went  to  greater  lengths  in  August, 
1775.  They  resolved  that  no  civil  actions  (with  a  few 
specified  exceptions)  should  be  commenced  or  renewed  in 
any  court  of  law,  save  by  permission  of  the  committee  of 
observation  of  the  county  in  which  the  debtors  and  defend- 
ants resided.  These  committees  were  instructed  to  permit 
the  trial  of  cases  where  debtors  refused  to  renew  their  obli- 
gations, or  to  give  reasonable  security,  or  to  refer  their  dis- 
putes to  one  or  more  disinterested  parties,  or  when  the 
debtors  were  justly  suspected  of  an  intention  to  leave  the 
province  or  to  defraud  their  creditors.' 

In  the  first  two  months  of  the  non-importation,  public 
sales  of  merchandise  imported  in  contravention  of  the 
Association  were  reported  at  Annapolis,  Chestertown,  Pis- 
cataway  and  Ca.lvert  County.  For  example,  James  Dick 
and  Anthony  Stewart,  who  were  in  bad  odor  for  past  in- 
discretions, were  concerned  in  an  importation  of  Madeira 
wines  at  Annapolis ;  and  the  consignment  was  sold,  at  their 
request,  at  a  profit  of  £1  lis.  id.  for  the  Boston  poor.'"  In 
the  months  following  February  i,  1775.  many  instances  of 
effective  execution  were  noted  in  the  newspapers.  Thus,  to 
cite  one  case  that  required  more  than  usual  skill  in  its  man- 
agement, the  captain  of  the  brig  Sally  from  Bristol  ap- 
peared before  the  Baltimore  committee  and  attested  under 
oath  that  his  cargo  consisted   of  twenty-four  indentured 

^  Md.  Gas.,  Dec.  15,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1032. 
'Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  11 7- 118. 

*  Md.  Gas.,  Dec.   15,  1774.     For  other  instances,   i-ide  ibid..   Feb.  23, 
Mch.  2,  June  29,  1775. 


2o6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

servants  and  one  hundred  tons  of  British  salt.  Clearly  the 
bringing  in  of  serv^ants  did  not  violate  the  Association,  and 
Dr.  John  Stevenson,  the  consignee,  maintained  to  the  com- 
mittee that  the  salt  ought  to  be  considered  merely  as  ballast 
and  thus  not  contrary  to  the  Association.  But  the  commit- 
tee voted  unanimously  that  the  salt  should  not  be  landed. 

A  week  later  the  captain  and  the  consignee  were  called  be- 
fore the  committee  again  and  charged  with  having  unladen 
a  portion  of  the  salt  in  defiance  of  the  decision  of  the  com- 
mittee. Stevenson  replied  that  he  had  understood  the  reso- 
lution to  apply  to  Baltimore  County  only  and  that  he  had 
shipped  a  quantity  on  board  four  bay-craft  to  various  parts 
of  Maryland  and  \^irginia.  Inasmuch  as  there  was  a  color- 
able pretext  for  this  interpretation,  the  committee  decided 
not  to  boycott  him  upon  his  pledge  to  give  the  proceeds  of 
the  sales  to  the  relief  of  Boston  and  not  to  land  the  remain- 
der of  the  salt  anywhere  between  Nova  Scotia  and  Georgia. 
Word  was  sent  out  to  various  parts  of  the  province  to  stop 
the  sale  of  the  salt  and  to  punish  all  persons  guiltily  in- 
volved. In  Prince  George's  County  Thomas  Bailey  was 
discovered  to  be  implicated  and,  after  a  hearing,  declared 
to  have  wilfully  violated  the  Association.^ 

The  more  usual  procedure  in  cases  of  forbidden  impor- 
tation was  for  the  captain  to  take  his  vessel  away  at  the 
command  of  the  local  committee  without  disturbing  the 
cargo.^  A  little  out  of  the  ordinary  was  the  arrival  of  a 
tomb-stone  in  Charles  County,  which  had  been  brought 
there  from  a  vessel  that  had  stopped  in  the  Potomac.  The 
committee  ordered  that  the  stone  should  be  broken  to 
pieces.^    With  regard  to  non-consumption  regulations,  some 

^  Md.  Gaz.,  Mch.  30,  June   15.   1775;   also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
34,  308. 

»£:.  g.,  ride  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  123,  175-176.  659-660,  1122-1123. 

*N.  Y.  Gac.  July  24,  1775- 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  507 

difficulty  was  experienced  in  preventing  the  use  of  tea.  In 
the  instance  of  one  obdurate  tea  dealer,  the  committee  for 
the  Upper  Part  of  Frederick  County  sentenced  the  offen- 
der, one  John  Parks,  to  set  fire  to  his  tea  with  head  uncov- 
ered and  then  to  suffer  the  rigors  of  the  boycott.  Not  con- 
tent with  these  measures,  the  populace  derived  some  satis- 
faction from  breaking  in  his  door  and  windows.^  Usually, 
however,  offenders  acquiesced  without  trouble. 

The  supervision  of  prices  received  careful  attention.  In 
December,  1774,  the  Maryland  convention  noted  the  wide 
range  of  prices  in  different  parts  of  the  province  during  the 
preceding  twelve  months,  and  resolved  that  all  merchants 
must  observe  a  uniform  rule  which  the  convention  an- 
nounced :  that  wholesale  prices  should  not  be  more  than 
112^  per  cent,  retail  prices  cash  not  more  than  130  per 
cent,  and  retail  prices  on  credit  not  more  than  150  per 
cent,  advance  on  the  prime  cost."  Alexander  Ogg,  a  mer- 
chant of  Huntington,  was  found  guilty  of  infringing  this 
rule  by  the  Calvert  County  Committee  and  published  as  an 
enemy  to  his  country.  He  offered  to  give  store  credit  for 
every  farthing  he  had  charged  beyond  the  limit  fixed,  but 
his  plea  fell  on  deaf  ears.'"' 

The  rigorous  observance  of  the  boycott  was  attested  by 
the  petitions  of  John  Baillie,  Patrick  Graham  and  Alexan- 
der Ogg  to  the  provincial  convention.*  The  first  two  had 
been  proscribed  for  knowingly  importing  goods  forbidden 
by  the  Association,  at  a  public  meeting  called  b}*-  the  Charles 
County  committee.  Baillie  declared  that  he  had  suffered 
*'  the  extremity  of  a  heavy,  though  just,  sentence  "  which 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  p.   1009;   also  Md.  Jourv.,  Nov.   16.   1774.  and 
Md.  Gas.,  Dec.  22. 
"*  Ibid.,  Dec.  15,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  pp.  1031-1032. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  281 ;  also  Md.  Gaz.,  -Vpr.  13,  1775. 
*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  727;  vol.  iii,  pp.  lor,  102,  106,  1 19-121. 


^o8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

had  been  ''  executed  with  such  rigour  that  it  has  been  with 
the  most  extreme  and  hazardous  difficulty  he  could  obtain 
the  necessary  food  to  support  a  life  rendered  miserable  by 
his  conduct  and  the  abovementioned  sentence;"  and  he 
promised  exemplary  conduct  if  his  offense  were  forgiven. 
Graham  testified  that  he  had  "  already  suffered  greatly,  not 
only  in  his  own  person,  property  and  reputation,  but  should 
he  continue  much  longer  in  the  present  situation,  his  offence 
must  reduce  an  innocent  wife  and  four  children  to  beggary 
and  ruin."  Ogg,  who  had  advanced  prices  unduly,  declared 
that  he  had  not  been  able  to  carry  on  his  business  or  to 
collect  the  debts  due  to  him.  The  convention  squarely  re- 
jected Baillie's  petition;  but  Graham  and  Ogg,  because  of 
mitigating  circumstances,  were  allowed  to  resume  their 
earlier  occupations,  the  former  under  some  restrictions. 

A  resolution  of  the  Maryland  convention  in  December, 
1774,  sought  to  prevent  the  killing  of  any  lamb  under  four 
years  of  age.  Because  the  terms  of  this  resolution  were 
much  more  severe  than  the  recommendation  in  the  Conti- 
nental Association,  considerable  confusion  arose  from  the 
representations  of  violators  that  they  were  entirely  in  har- 
mony with  the  Continental  Association  and  therefore  ought 
not  to  be  proscribed.  To  relieve  the  situation  the  resolu- 
tion was  withdrawn  by  the  Maryland  convention  in  August, 
1 775-'  The  provincial  convention  of  November,  1774, 
recommended  that  balls  be  discontinued  in  this  time  of 
public  calamity.^  The  Jockey  Club  at  Annapolis  called  off 
the  races  which  had  been  arranged  to  conclude  the  club  sub- 
scription.^ In  April,  1775,  the  Baltimore  committee  unani- 
mously recommended  to  the  people  of  the  county  not  to  en- 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1031 ;  vol.  ii,  pp.  308-309,  903-904;  vol.  iii,  pp.- 
104,  117. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  991 ;  also  Aid.  Gac.  Dec.  i,  1774. 
^  Ihid.,   Nov.  3,  1774. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


509 


courage  or  attend  the  approaching  fair  because  of  its  ten- 
dency to  encourage  horse-racing,  gaming,  drunkenness  and 
other  dissipation/ 

In  view  of  the  abundant  evidence,  it  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  quote  Governor  Eden's  words  of  December  30,  1774,  to 
the  effect  that  he  firmly  believed  that  the  Marylanders 
would  "  persevere  in  their  nonimportation  and  nonexporta- 
tion  experiments,  in  spite  of  every  inconvenience  that  they 
must  consequently  be  exposed  to,  and  the  total  ruin  of  their 
trade."  ' 

In  Virginia  the  chief  dissent  to  the  Association  came 
from  the  merchant  and  factor  element,  largely  Scotch  by 
nativity.  The  fact  that  a  majority  of  the  faculty  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  College  were  non-associators  elicited  un- 
favorable comment  from  the  radical  press ;  ^  but  their  op- 
position was  no  more  important  than  that  of  the  small 
Quaker  element  in  the  population,  which  Madison  noted,* 
or  of  the  royal  office  holding  class,  since  none  of  these 
groups  was  in  position  to  enforce  their  views  even  if  they 
wanted  to. 

The  opposition  of  the  Scotch  was  clandestine  but  none 
the  less  pertinacious.  The  body  of  the  trade  at  Williams- 
burg, numbering  more  than  four  hundred,  professed  sup- 
port of  the  Association  in  a  written  pledge  early  in  Novem- 
ber, 1774,  and  received  the  thanks  of  Peyton  Randolph  and 
other  delegates  of  the  province  for  disregarding  the  influ- 
ence of  their  commercial  interest  in  the  great  struggle  for 
liberty.^     And  the  Norfolk  committee  affirmed  on  Decem- 

1  Md.  Gas.,  May  4,  1775 ;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  337- 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1076 ;  also  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  June  6,  1775. 
'  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Dec.  22,  1774;  Jan.  5.  26,  i77o- 

*  Writings  (Hunt),  vol.  i,  pp.  28-29. 

*  Pa.  Gaz.,  Nov.  30,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  972-973- 


^lO  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ber  6  that  the  whole  trading  body  of  the  province  had 
cheerfully  subscribed  to  the  Association.^  Whether  or  not 
the  motive  of  the  merchants  at  this  early  time  was  to  gain 
the  good  will  of  the  radical  planters  who  owned  them  large 
sums  of  money,  the  facts  are  clear  that  they  had  to  regulate 
their  conduct  ultimately  by  the  instructions  of  the  English 
houses  they  represented  or,  in  any  case,  be  tempted  almost 
beyond  endurance  by  the  prospect  of  obtaining  monopoly 
prices  during  the  suspension  of  importation. 

Suspicion  of  the  good  faith  of  the  Scotch  merchants  had 
too  deep  a  hold  on  many  radicals  to  permit  acceptance  of 
their  protestations  at  face  value.  "  It  is  generally  believed, 
by  this  time,  that  the  Scotch  have  all  signed  the  associa- 
tion," declared  one  newspaper  writer.  "  If  they  have,  I 
would  ask  if  it  is  not  through  compulsion?"  He  urged 
that,  while  there  was  still  time,  the  province  should  be 
purged  of  such  filth  by  withdrawing  all  trade  from  them." 
Another  writer  deplored  "  that  antipathy  to  the  Scotch, 
which  appears  to  be  so  general  amongst  us,"  and  showed 
that  despite  their  personal  predilections  they  must  as  a 
matter  of  duty  defer  to  their  British  employers  with  re- 
spect to  the  Association.^  When  the  period  for  enforcing 
the  non-importation  arrived,  the  Scotch  as  a  class  proved  to 
be  the  most  numerous  offenders.  The  climax  came  when 
Purdie's  Virginia  Gazette  of  December  22  and  29,  1775, 
published  a  number  of  intercepted  letters,  which  showed 
that  the  leading  Scotch  merchants  were  as  unprincipled  as 
the  most  skeptical  radicals  had  believed  them  to  be.  A 
letter  was  printed,  written  by  Andrew  Sprowle,  chairman 
of  the  Williamsburg  trade,  who  had  headed  the  merchants 

'  4  M.  H.  S.  Colls.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  160-161. 

'  Charles  M'Carty,  of  Richmond  County,  in  Pinkney's  I'a.  Gaz.,  Jain 
19,  1775- 

'  "A  Citizen  of  the  World  "'  in  ibid..  Jan.  26,  1775. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


511 


when  they  signed  the  Association  in  November,  1774.  In 
this  letter  Sprowle  ordered  some  invoices  of  goods  from 
Greenock,  Scotland,  and  declared  further :  "  I  would  have 
no  fear  in  bringing  in  a  vessel  with  Osnabrugs,  Irish  linen, 
and  other  sortable  goods,  [as  they]  would  be  protected  by 
a  man  of  war."  Robert  Shedden  of  Portsmouth  had  writ- 
ten to  his  Glasgow  correspondent :  "  Depend  upon  it  you 
will  never  have  such  another  opportunity  to  make  money 
by  dry  goods  in  this  country.  Osnabrugs.  canvass,  &c  and 
ever\-  necessar}-  article;  a  large  and  full  assortment  of 
goods,  nails,  &c\  bring  as  many  as  you  can  get  credit  for. 
...  If  you  bring  20,000  1.  in  goods,  they  will  sell  to  ad- 
vantage." .  Wrote  the  Norfork  merchant,  John  Brown,  to 
London :  "  You  are  hereby  ordered  to  ship,  by  the  first  op- 
portunity, £1000  sterling  value  in  linen  goods,  &c." 

Meantime,  the  merchants  and  factors  had  been  taking- 
advantage  of  their  position  in  another  way — they  had  been 
hastening  to  press  their  debtors  for  the  payment  of  long- 
outstanding  obligations  before  the  latter  became  entirely 
bankrupt  from  the  suspension  of  trade.  This  prudent  busi- 
ness transaction  worked  a  grievous  hardship  on  many  plan- 
ters, and  estates  were  sold  for  debt  in  divers  places.^  A  de- 
mand arose  for  a  boycott  against  merchants  who  used  ex- 
cessive caution  in  extending  credit;  and  Peyton  Randolph 
felt  impelled  to  declare  in  a  public  statement  that  the  Asso- 
ciation furnished  no  remedy,  that  it  did  not  empower  com- 
mittees to  dictate  to  merchants  to  whom  they  should  sell 
on  credit  or  for  what  time  they  should  give  credit." 

Unless  the  radicals  could  devise  effective  counter- 
measures,  the  merchants  seemed  about  to  cut  the  ground 
from  under  them.  The  radicals  had  foreseen  this  situation, 
to  some  extent,  and  their  course  of  action  was  designed  to 

1  "A  Scotchman"  in  Pinkney's  I'a.  Cac.  Mch.  .23,  1775. 
'  Ihid.,  Feb.  2,  9.  1775. 


^12  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

cripple,  if  not  to  destroy,  the  economic  power  of  the  mer- 
chants. The  provincial  convention  of  August,  1774,  closed 
up  the  county  courts  of  justice  on  the  ground  that  the  last 
session  of  the  Assembly  had  not  renewed  the  Fee  Act ;  and 
"  the  men  of  fortune  and  pre-eminence  joined  equally  with 
the  lowest  and  meanest ''  in  bringing  this  to  pass,  averred 
Governor  Dunmore/  They  also  recommended  that  lawyers 
and  witnesses  stay  away  from  the  approaching  General 
Court  of  Judicature,  except  in  criminal  cases ;  and  they  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  their  point.  On  March  25,  1775,  a  later 
provincial  convention  gave  their  sanction  to  the  suspension 
of  judicial  proceedings.  They  declared  that,  on  account  of 
the  unsettled  state  of  public  affairs,  the  lawyers,  suitors 
and  witnesses  ought  not  to  take  part  in  civil  cases  at  the 
next  General  Court;  that  county  courts  ought  not  to  hear 
ajiy  suits  on  their  dockets,  except  attachments,  nor  give 
judgment,  save  in  the  case  of  sheriffs  or  other  collectors 
for  money  or  tobacco  received  by  them,  or  in  cases  where 
judgment  should  be  voluntarily  confessed  or  in  amicable 
proceedings  for  the  settlement  of  estates.^  Though  ex- 
horted by  Governor  Dunmore,  the  House  of  Burgesses  in 
June  refused  "  to  interpose  legislative  authority  in  order 
to  compel  the  Magistrates  to  open  the  courts  of  civil  juris- 
diction, and  thereby  expose  the  people  to  cruel  exactions." 
They  justified  their  refusal  as  an  answer  to  the  act  of  Par- 
liament, recently  passed,  restraining  their  trade,  and  de- 
clared it  was  best  for  the  courts  to  remain  closed  until  wis- 
dom had  returned  to  the  British  administration.^ 

These  measures  afforded  an  effective  shield  against  the 
merchant-creditors  and  saved  the  situation  for  the  radicals. 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  775,  1062. 

'^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  168-169;  also  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Mch.  30,  1775. 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1188,  1190-1191. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  513 

Indeed,  on  August  25,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  Vir- 
ginia convention  by  sundry  factors  and  mercantile  agents, 
complaining  of  the  ill-grounded  prejudices  which  had  been 
aroused  against  them  as  natives  of  Great  Britain  and  pledg- 
ing their  aid  in  the  civil  contest  with  the  parent  country  in 
every  respect  except  that  of  taking  up  arms  against  the 
people  among  whom  they  had  been  born.  The  convention 
resolved  unanimously  that  the  petition  was  reasonable  and 
instructed  the  local  committees  ''  to  treat  all  natives  of 
Great  Britain  resident  here,  as  do  not  show  themselves 
enemies  to  the  common  cause  of  America,  with  lenity  and 
friendship.  .  .  ."  ^ 

In  carrying  out  the  Association  in  Virginia,  the  plan  was 
adopted  of  requiring  all  the  inhabitants  to  attach  their  sig- 
natures to  the  document.  Other  provinces  had  been  willing 
and  anxious  to  let  sleeping  dogs  lie;  the  Virginia  radicals 
were  so  confident  of  the  power  of  public  opinion  behind 
them  that  they  carried  this  challenge  to  every  inhabitant,  so 
far  as  it  proved  practicable."  Thus,  the  Northampton  com- 
mittee divided  the  county  into  seven  districts  with  sub- 
committees appointed  to  present  the  Association  to  all  the 
inhabitants.^  The  committee  for  Princess  Anne  County 
delivered  a  list  of  non-associators  to  every  merchant  in  the 
county  and  posted  other  copies  at  various  public  places  and 
at  Norfolk,  with  the  recommendation  that  all  commercial 
intercourse  with  the  delinquents  be  stopped.  When  Ben- 
jamin Gray,  one  of  the  proscribed,  was  reported  to  have 
called  the  committee  "  a  pack  of  damn'd  rascals,"  his  addi- 
tional offense  was  also  given  publicity.*     Tn   Nansemond 

■^  ^  Am.  Arch.   vol.  iii,  pp.  391-352;   also   Pinkne\-'s   J'a.  Gas.,  Aug. 

:^i.  1775. 

'Madison,   JVritijigs  (Hunt),  vol.  i,  pp.  28-29. 

^  7  Am.  ArcJi.,  vol.  i,  p.  1045. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  76-77;  also  Pinkney's  Fa.  Gaz.,  Mch.  23,  1775. 


514 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


County,  the  Reverend  John  Agnew  was  held  up  to  pubHc 
censure  for  roundly  condemning  the  Association  in  his  ser- 
mons and  private  conversations;  and  a  man  who  rented  a 
"  flatt  "  from  the  parson  was  obliged  to  give  it  up/  Ex- 
amples like  this  abounded.  The  Virginia  plan  forced  every 
inhabitant  into  a  position  of  either  active  friendship  or  open 
hostility;  and  since  it  was  entirely  possible  for  a  man  to 
disapprove  of  the  Association  without  ever  violating  its 
provisions,  the  number  of  those  subject  to  neglect  and  boy- 
cott was  vastly  greater  than  in  other  provinces.  The  Vir- 
ginia radicals  thus  took  an  advanced  stand — a  stage  which 
the  other  provinces  did  not  reach  until  the  bloodshed  of 
April,  1775,  had  occurred. 

In  early  November,  1774,  a  mob  at  Yorktown  went  on 
board  the  Virginin  and  dumped  into  the  river  two  half- 
chests  of  tea,  with  the  entire  approval  of  the  county  com- 
mittee. The  London  shippers  and  the  consignees  at  Wil- 
liamsburg were  both  held  up  for  neglect  by  the  York  com- 
mittee and  the  adjoining  Gloucester  County  committee.^ 
This  little  "  tea  party "  exceeded  the  provisions  of  the 
Association,  but  marked  the  enthusiasm  which  character- 
ized the  execution  of  the  non-importation  regulation.  Pub- 
lic sales  of  cargoes  that  arrived  between  December  i,  1774, 
and  February  i,  1775,  were  reported  at  Norfolk  and  Wil- 
liamsburg and  in  fourteen  counties.^  Many  of  these  sales 
showed  small  profits  or  none  at  all ;  but  occasionally  a  ship- 
ment brought  a  substantial  advance,  like  Andrew  Wod- 
row's  in  King  George  County,  which  yielded  a  profit  of 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  226-228;  N.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  p.  1164. 

*  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Nov.  24,  1774;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
964-965. 

'  Charles  City,  Dinwiddie,  Elizabeth  City,  Essex,  Fairfax,  Gooch- 
land, Henrico,  Isle  of  Wight,  King  George,  Nansemond,  New  Kent, 
Princess  Anne,  Spotsylvania  and  Surry.  Vide  files  of  the  three  Vir- 
ginia Gazettes,  edited  by  Pinkney,  by  Purdie,  and  by  Dixon  &  Hunter. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  515 

£19  14s.  for  the  Boston  needy/  For  this  reason,  it  is  im- 
probable that  the  Scotch  merchants  felt  tempted  to  with- 
hold importations  from  committee  auction. 

One  interesting  case  of  defiance  occurred.  Late  in  Jan- 
uary an  importation  of  medicines  worth  £200  sterling  ar- 
rived for  Dr.  Alexander  Gordon,  a  well-known  physician 
of  Norfolk;  and  he  requested  that  he  might  be  allowed  to 
receive  the  goods  agreeable  to  the  terms  of  the  provincial 
association  of  August,  1774.  The  committee  informed 
him  that  their  rule  of  conduct  now  was  the  Continental 
Association,  and  advised  him  to  submit  the  medicines  for 
sale  in  accordance  with  Article  x,  as  had  been  done  by 
other  physicians.  He  expressed  a  preference  for  storing 
the  goods  under  charge  of  the  committee;  but  while  ar- 
rangements were  being  made  for  this  purpose,  he  quietly 
landed  the  medicines  and  took  possession  of  them  himself. 
It  proved  impossible  for  the  committee  to  get  the  merchan- 
dise away  from  him,  and  with  very  evident  reluctance  they 
held  him  up  for  public  censure." 

The  regulation  against  the  importation  of  slaves  had 
caused  very  little  difficulty  in  the  northern  provinces;  but 
the  Norfolk  committee  found  it  necessary  to  proscribe  John 
Brown,  a  Scotch  merchant  who  had  been  in  Virginia  since 
1762,  for  being  concerned  in  the  importation  of  twenty 
slaves  in  the  brig  Fanny  from  Jamaica.  He  stoutly  pro- 
tested his  innocence,  but  his  letter-books  proved  the  con- 
trary.' 

^  Dixon  &  Hunter's  Fa.  Gas.,  Jan.  28,  1775. 

*  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Feb.  16,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
1217-1278. 

*  'bid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  33-34;  also  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Mch.  23,  1775. 
Vide  also  memorial  of  the  Browns  in  A.  O.  no.  55:  A'^.  Y.  Loyalist 
Clai's  Transcripts,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  459,  467-471.  The  Chesterfield 
County  committee  also  took  occasion  to  voice  their  indignation  and  to 
declare  the  suspension  of  all  dealings  with  him.  Purdie's  Va.  Goz.,_ 
May  5.   1775- 


5i6 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


After  February  i  the  number  of  incoming  vessels  fell 
off,  and  when  goods  were  brought  contrary  to  the  Associa- 
tion they  were  almost  invariably  re-shipped.  In  one  case, 
that  of  the  brigantine  Mitir  from  Antigua,  the  captain  had 
sold  some  merchandise  before  he  learned  of  the  Associa- 
tion; and  the  Essex  County  committee  absolved  him  from 
public  censure  when  he  signed  the  Association  and  re- 
shipped  the  goods,  including  the  portion  sold/  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Norfolk  committee  declared  Captain  Samp- 
son, of  the  snow  Elisabeth  from  Bristol,  an  enemy  to  his 
country  for  practising  deception  in  landing  a  cargo  of  salt 
and  then  seeking  protection  of  a  man-of-war."  The  non- 
consumption  regulations  required  little  attention  from  the 
committees,  except  the  prohibition  of  tea  drinking,  which 
was  effectively  administered.^ 

The  upward  trend  of  prices  gave  more  trouble.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Continental  Association  prices  were  not  to  ad- 
vance beyond  the  customary  charge  for  articles  during  the 
twelve  months  preceding.  A  disgusted  radical  of  North- 
umberland County  averred  that,  when  it  came  to  the  inves- 
tigation of  prices,  one  Scotch  merchant  would  swear  to 
another's  lies — they  were  "determined  to  be  clannish,  even 
at  the  expence  of  their  souls!"*  This  practice  was  prob- 
ably not  restricted  entirely  to  the  Scotch  traders.  At  any 
rate,  it  quickly  caused  the  committees  to  adopt  the  practice 
of  examining  the  da3^books  and  invoices  of  any  merchant 
'under  suspicion.  Should  he  refuse  access  to  his  accounts, 
he  was  deemed  to  be  guilty  by  the  very  fact.  For  example, 
in  December,  1774,  the  committee  of  Caroline  County  in- 

•  Pinkney's  Va.  Gac,  Mch.  16,  1775. 

-  Ibid.,  Apr.  6,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii^sPP-  I74-I75- 
^  E.  g.,   Pinkney's    Va.   Gaz.,   Dec.    i,    I774.   Ju^ie    i,    I775;    Dixon   & 
Hunter's  Gaz.,  Feb.  4;  Purdie's  Gaz.,  July  7. 

*  Charles  M'Carty  in  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Jan.  19,  1775. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  517 

spected  the  books  of  four  merchants,  declaring  them  inno- 
cent, and  pronounced  six  others  subject  to  boycott  because 
they  had  withheld  their  books.  Within  less  than  a  month 
the  six  permitted  their  accounts  to  be  examined;  and  the 
committee  declared  that  they  also  had  adhered  to  the  Asso- 
ciation.^ In  Gloucester  County,  Captain  Charles  Marshall, 
who  had  been  acting  consistently  with  his  avowal  that 
"  every  man  has  a  right  to  sell  his  goods  for  as  much  as  he 
could  get,"  was  disciplined  by  the  committee;  whereupon 
he  signed  the  Association,  and  issued  a  confession  in  which 
he  said  :  "These  are  offenses  I  am  (as  have  been  some  other 
North  Britains)  taught  to  know,  at  this  time,  deserve 
severe  punishment."  "  Great  activity  in  the  regulation  of 
prices  was  also  recorded  in  other  counties,  especially  Prince 
William,  Charlotte,  Spotsylvania,  Hanover,  Richmond  and 
Fairfax.' 

The  promotion  of  local  manufacturing  met  with  ready- 
response,  partly  no  doubt  because  it  contributed  to  the 
weakening  of  the  economic  position  of  the  factors  and  mer- 
chants. Interest  centered  in  the  production  of  cotton  and 
woolen  textiles,  and  of  gunpowder.  The  Northampton 
County  committee  in  January,  1775,  offered  a  bonus  of  £40 
sterling  to  the  first  person  who  in  the  next  eighteen  months 
should  make  one  thousand  pairs  of  wool-cards  in  the  prov- 
ince and  agreed  to  buy  them  at  the  rate  of  2s.  a  pair.  A 
premium  of  £40  was  also  offered  to  the  first  person  who 
should  manufacture  five  thousand  pounds  of  gimpovvder  in 
the  province  in  the  next  eighteen  months.  The  committee 
appealed  to  other  covmties  to  add  to  these  premiums,  so  that 

1  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Jan.  12,  1775;  and  Dixon  &  Hunter's  Va.  Gac, 
Feb.  4. 

^  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Jan.  19,  I775- 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1034.  1138-1139;  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Jan. 
19.  Feb.  2,  May  18,  1775;  Purdie's  Gaz.,  Feb.  17,  Apr.  21. 


C,i8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  total  sum  would  foster  a  widespread  interest  in  manu- 
facturing/ Other  counties  quickly  acted  on  the  sugges- 
tion ;  ^  and  on  March  zy  the  provincial  convention  outlined 
a  comprehensive  program  of  industrial  development  by 
adopting  bodily  the  main  resolutions  passed  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania convention  in  January.  After  May  i  no  sheep 
were  to  be  killed  under  four  years  of  age,  except  in  cases  of 
necessity.  Woolen,  cotton  and  linen  manufactures  should 
be  established;  steel,  woolcombs,  paper,  gunpowder,  etc., 
should  be  manufactured.  These  various  undertakings 
should  be  promoted  by  the  formation  of  local  societies  for 
that  purpose  and  by  the  offering  of  premiums.'  In  Sep- 
tember, James  Stewart  returned  to  Virginia  after  eighteen 
months'  stay  in  England  where  he  had  been  studying  the 
culture  and  preparation  of  dyes  and  machines  for  manu- 
facturing cotton.  He  brought  with  him  a  large  quantity 
of  seeds  and  roots  of  the  standard  dyes,  for  planting  in 
various  parts  of  the  province,  and  planned  to  instruct  per- 
sons in  the  construction  of  cotton  machines.*  What  suc- 
cess he  met  with  we  do  not  know. 

In  no  province  was  the  practice  of  gambling  more  deeply 
rooted  than  in  Virginia ;  and  determined  efforts  were  made 
to  discourage  this  wasteful  manner  of  living.  Thus,  infor- 
mation was  received  by  the  Northumberland  County  com- 
mittee that  William  Lewis  had  violated  the  Association  by 
gaming  with  Anthony  McKenley  of  Maryland.  Witnesses 
were  called,  sworn  and  examined ;  and  the  evidence  showed 

'Dixon  &  Hunter's  T'a.  Gas.,  Feb.  4,  1775',  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  1045-1046. 

'  £.  g.,  Isle  of  Wight,  Ctunberlancl,  Essex,  Gloucester  and  Bedford; 
ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1247;  vol.  ii,  pp.  13-14,  387-388;  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Feb. 
13,  1775- 

'Ibid.,  Mch.  30,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  170-171. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  716;  also  Purdie's  J'a.  Gaz.,  Sept.  15,  1775. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  519 

that  Lewis  had  won  *''  a  Silver  Watch,  two  pair  of  Leather 
Breeches,  and  two  men's  fine  Kats."  Both  men  were  ad- 
judged guihy  and  were  pubhcly  advertised  as  violators  of 
the  Association/  The  Southampton  County  committee 
recommended  four  men,  who  had  been  gaming,  to  the 
mercy  of  the  public,  upon  their  offer  to  refund  all  they  had 
won  and  to  observe  the  Association  strictly  in  the  future." 
In  another  instance,  the  Hanover  County  committee  "  hon- 
ourably acquitted  "  Samuel  Overton  of  the  charge  of  en- 
couraging horse-racing.^ 

The  degree  of  efficiency  attained  by  the  committees  in 
executing  the  Association  aroused  Governor  Dunmore  to 
righteous  indignation  in  his  well-known  letter  of  December 
24,  1774,  to  Lord  Dartmouth.  His  conclusions  in  that 
epistle  were  that  the  Association  was  being  enforced  "  with 
the  greatest  rigour "  and  that  "  the  Laws  of  Congress  " 
received  from  the  Virginians  "  marks  of  reverence  which 
they  never  bestowed  on  their  legal  Government,  or  the  Laws 
proceeding  from  it."  By  way  of  pathetic  afterthought  he 
added :  "  I  have  discovered  no  instance  where  the  inter- 
position of  Government,  in  the  feeble  state  to  which  it  is 
reduced,  could  serve  any  other  purpose  than  to  suffer  the 
disgrace  of  a  disappointment,  and  thereby  afford  matter  of 
great  exultation  to  its  enemies  and  increase  their  influence 
over  the  minds  of  the  people."  * 

In  North  Carolina  the  development  of  events  was  influ- 
enced by  the  example  of  nearby  Virginia.     The  old  Regu- 

'  Pinknej^'s    Fa.    Gaz.,    Mch.   2,    1775;    also   4   Am.   Arch.,   vol.   i,   pp. 
I178-1179. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  299-300. 

*  Pinkney's  Va.  Gaz.,  Jan.  19,  1775. 

*  Ibid.,  Apr.  28,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.   1061-1063.     For 
radical  answers  to  Dunmore's  assertions,  vide  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  502-504, 

525,  1204,  1210-1215,  1222-1225. 


-20  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHAXTS:  1763-1776 

lator  class  held  aloof  from  the  Continental  Association, 
although  it  made  some  progress  among  them ;  ^  being  seg- 
regated in  the  interior  comities,  they  were  not  in  position 
to  impair  the  operation  of  the  Association  in  its  more  im- 
portant aspects.  There  was,  however,  a  small,  compact 
group  of  Scotch  merchants  at  Wilmington,  the  chief  trading 
town;-  and,  as  in  Virginia,  they  obeyed  the  Association 
only  so  far  as  it  served  their  interests  so  to  do.  In  the 
first  two  months  of  the  non-importation  they  co-operated 
with  the  Wilmington  committee  in  permitting  their  impor- 
tations to  be  sold  under  the  terms  of  the  Association.  The 
records  show  that  at  least  thirteen  merchants  received  goods 
between  December  i,  1774,  and  February  i,  1775,  which 
were  offered  for  public  sale  by  the  Wilmington  committee, 
and  that  at  the  smaller  town  of  Edenton  two  merchants  ob- 
served the  same  regulation."  For  example,  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Wilmington  committee  on  December  30,  Hogg  &  Camp- 
bell submitted  an  invoice  of  salt  imported  in  the  North  Star 
from.  Lj^mington,  and  four  other  firms  submitted  invoices 
of  anchors,  cables,  canvass,  osnaburgs  and  other  merchan- 
dise imported  in  the  Thetis  from  Glasgow.  The  goods 
were  sold  at  public  vendue  the  next  day.*  In  general,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  sales  yielded  little  or  no  profit;  from 
all  the  sales  conducted  by  the  Wilmington  committee,  the 
profits  for  Boston  amounted  to  only  £25  2s.  5d.^ 

In  six  or  seven  instances  the  committee  at  Wilmington 
secured  the  re-shipment  of  slaves  that  had  been  imported 

'  Note  the  means  used  to  convert  three  pertinacious  inhabitants  of 
Anson  County  to  the  Association.  ;V.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  x,  pp.  125-129,. 
161,  182. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  X,  p.  48. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1095-1154  passim. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1103-1104. 

^Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1153-1154. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


521 


contrary  to  the  Association.^  After  February  i,  when  the 
new  period  of  non-importation  began,  fewer  vessels  arrived 
at  Wilmington,  and  the  cargoes  were  re-shipped  without 
trouble.  Two  interesting  exceptions  were  made — once  for 
paper  intended  for  use  of  the  press,  and  another  time  for 
household  goods  intended  for  personal  use." 

Through  their  possession  of  large  stocks,  the  Wilming- 
ton merchants  were  in  position  to  demand  high  prices  and 
thus  discredit  the  Association,  unless  the  radicals  resorted 
to  drastic  measures.  Therefore  every  effort  Vv^as  made  to 
supervise  prices  carefully.  On  December  17,  1774,  the 
Pitt  County  committee  fixed  a  maximum  price  for  salt 
with  the  penalty  of  boycott  for  violation.'^  About  the  same 
time  the  Wilmington  committee  conducted  an  investigation 
into  the  prices  of  rum  and  gunpowder,  and  in  January  they 
called  a  meeting  of  merchants  and  traders  in  order  to  agree 
on  prices  and  prevent  advantage  being  taken  of  the  suspen- 
sion of  importation.  On  January  27  the  committee  decided 
upon  maximum  prices  for  salt  and  drygoods;  and  about 
two  weeks  later  they  compelled  Jonathan  Dunbilrie  to  re- 
turn to  a  purchaser  the  excess  profit  he  had  received  for  a 
bushel  of  salt."'  The  Rowan  County  committee  also  dis- 
played great  activity  in  this  direction.'^ 

As  a  still  further  check  upon  the  merchants,  the  Wil- 
mington comm.ittee  in  March,  1775,  adopted  the  Virginia 
device  of  requiring  all  friends  of  the  Association  to  attach 
their  signatures  to  the  document.  On  the  following  day  all 
the  housekeepers  in  town  were  given  the  opportunity,  and 

»  N.  C.  Col.  Recs.,   vol.  ix,  pp.  1098-1099,  1112-1113,  1168,  1171,  1222, 
1266 ;  vol.  X,  p.  24. 
^  Ibid.,   vol.  ix,  pp.  1185-1186;  vol.  x,  pp.  50,  279. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  p.  HOC. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1059-1100,  1113.  1126. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  X,  pp.  9-10. 


522 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


only  eleven  persons  refused.  Seven  of  these  were  Scotch 
merchants;  five  of  them  had  formerly  submitted  their  im- 
portations for  committee  auction.  The  committee  resolved 
that  unless  the  eleven  revised  their  decision  within  six  days 
they  would  have  no  dealings  or  intercourse  whatsoever  with 
them.  Eight  promptly  gave  their  signatures ;  and  when  the 
six  day  period  expired,  only  three  —  two  tailors  and  one 
merchant,  by  name  McKenzie,  McNight  and  McDonnel — 
remained  obdurate.^ 

The  way  was  easy  for  the  radicals  to  hamper  the  collec- 
tion of  debts,  for,  owing  to  a  quarrel  between  the  governor 
and  the  Assembly,  the  law  for  the  establishment  of  courts, 
which  had  expired  in  February,  1773,  had  never  been  re- 
newed. At  the  brief  session  of  the  Assembly  in  April, 
1775,  Governor  Martin  urged  the  importance  of  a  law  for 
the  permanent  establishment  of  courts.  But  the  radical 
leaders  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  openly  avowing, 
according  to  Governor  Martin,  that  courts  "  would  be  in- 
jurious at  this  time  unless  their  operation  could  be  sus- 
pended, since  they  would  furnish  the  merchants  with  op- 
portunity to  harrass  their  Debtors  while  the  people  at  large, 
having  bound  themselves  by  the  Resolves  of  Congress, 
could  not  convert  their  commodities  into  money  to  pay 
their  Debts."  Furthermore,  the  governor  declared  that  it 
was  well  known  that  among  the  radical  leaders  there  were 
"  some  whose  desperate  circumstances  make  them  dread 
the  long  arms  of  Courts  of  unlimited  jurisdiction  which 
would  extend  to  their  own  cases  .  .  ."  ^  Not  content  with 
merely  negative  action,  the  North  Carolina  congress  in  Sep- 
tember, 1775,  went  the  full  length,  as  had  the  neighboring 
provinces,  and  resolved  that  no  actions  should  be  begun  or 

^  N.  C.  Col.  Rccs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1149-1150,  1152-1153,  1166. 
"^  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1225- 1226. 


IX  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


523 


continued  in  the  courts  except  by  consent  of  the  committee 
of  the  county  in  which  the  debtor  resided.^ 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  case  of  boycott,  because  of 
the  prominence  and  wealth  of  the  gentleman  concerned, 
was  that  of  Thomas  iVIacknight,  of  Currituck,  a  county  in 
the  extreme  northeastern  part  of  the  province.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  provincial  convention  of  April,  1775,  Macknight 
spoke  against  a  motion,  which  expressed  high  approval  of 
the  Association,  on  the  ground  that  a  great  many  colonists, 
like  himself,  owed  money  in  Great  Britain  which  the  non- 
exportation  regulation  would  render  them  unable  to  pay. 
Notwithstanding  his  opposition,  the  convention  proceeded 
to  adopt  the  motion,  and  then  voted  that  every  member 
should  sign  the  Association.  Macknight  protested ;  he  said 
that  he  would  "  conform  "  to  the  Association  but  that  he 
could  not  endorse  it  by  the  attaching  of  his  signature.  The 
sense  of  the  convention  was  taken  on  his  statement  of  ad- 
herence, and  the  body  divided  fourteen  counties  against 
fourteen.  Macknight  continued  to  withhold  his  signature, 
but  offered  to  change  the  word  "  conform  "  to  "  accede." 

This  was  voted  as  acceptable  by  a  majority,  but  an  un- 
compromising minority  declared  they  would  withdraw  from 
the  convention  if  any  subscription  different  from  theirs 
was  accepted  from  him.  To  restore  harmony,  Macknight 
himself  now  voluntarily  withdrew;  and  the  convention 
thereupon  passed  a  resolution  holding  him  up  "  as  a  proper 
object  of  contempt  to  this  Continent  "  to  be  subjected  to  a 
rigorous  boycott.  The  other  members  from  Currituck  also 
withdrew  as  well  as  two  members  of  the  Pasquotank  dele- 
gation. It  would  appear  that  ^Jacknight  did  not  at  once 
suffer  any  serious  consequences  from  this  resolution  inas- 
much as  the  more  substantial  leaders  among  the  radicals 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  208.     Some  changes  in  detail  were  made  in 
this  resolution  by  the  provincial  council  in  October.     Ibid.,  p.  10Q3. 


-2.1  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

realized  that  he  had  not  asserted  his  right  to  act  contrary 
to  the  community  but  merely  to  think  as  he  pleased.  How- 
ever, with  the  development  of  events  in  the  next  twelve- 
month, Macknight's  offense  began  to  appear  more  heinous, 
and  he  was  forced  to  abandon  his  estate  and  flee  to  the 
British  for  protection.^ 

Interest  in  the  promotion  of  domestic  manufacturing  de- 
veloped later  in  North  Carolina  than  in  most  other  prov- 
inces, but  assumed  a  more  practicable  form.  A  beginning 
was  made  in  March,  1775,  by  the  Chowan  County  com- 
mittee, who  offered  premiums  to  the  first  persons  in  the 
province  who  should  make  a  stated  quantity  of  wool  cards 
and  cotton  cards,  with  the  added  inducement  that  the  arti- 
cles should  be  purchased  by  the  committee  at  a  higher  price 
than  the  same  articles  made  in  England  commanded.  Other 
awards  were  announced  for  the  making  of  steel,  bleached 
linen  and  fulled  woolen  cloth."  The  provincial  convention 
in  April,  1775,  recommended  that  the  other  counties  follow 
out  the  same  plan.^  Most  counties  proving  apathetic,  the 
provincial  congress  in  September  set  an  example  for  the 
continent  by  offering  twenty  premiums,  amounting  in  all  to 
£2965,  for  the  encouragement  of  local  manufacturing. 
Among  the  manufactures  named  for  subsidies  were  nails, 
pins,  needles,  steel  and  pig  iron,  cotton  and  wool  cards, 
linens  and  woolens,  salt,  powder  and  saltpetre."* 

As  in  other  provinces,  the  foibles  of  the  people  were  sub- 
jected to  the  pitiless  surveillance  of  the  committees.  This 
was  strikingly  true  in  the  case  of  Wilmington,  where  the 

^  iV.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  p.  1227;  vol.  x,  pp.  31-37;  Pub.  Rec.  Off., 
C.  0.  5,  no.  147,  pp.  447-457  (L.  C.  Transcripts)  ;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  269-272. 

^  A''.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1133-1134;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  30-31. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  270. 

*^  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  209-212;  also  N.  C.  Coh  Recs.,  vol.  x,  pp.  216-219. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


52: 


subscription  races  in  November  and  January  were  stopped, 
billiard  tables  were  abolished,  and  dances,  private  as  well  as 
public,  were  prevented/ 

In  conclusion,  it  is  a  safe  generalization  that  the  essential 
features  of  the  Association  were  well  executed.  The  in- 
habitants of  Anson,  Rowan,  Surry  and  Guilford,  the  old 
Regulator  counties,  remained  quiet  and  no  doubt  violated 
the  non-consumption  regulations  whenever  opportunity 
afforded  —  which  was  seldom.  Governor  Martin  paid  his 
respects  to  the  efficiency  of  the  radical  organization  when, 
in  his  proclamation  of  March  i,  1775,  he  referred  to  the 
"Tyrannical  and  arbitrary  Committees  which  have  already 
in  many  instances  proceeded  to  the  Extravagance  of  forc- 
ing his  Majesty's  subjects  contrary  to  their  consciences  to 
submit  to  their  unreasonable,  seditious  and  chimerical  Re- 
solves .  .  ."  ■ 

The  temper  of  the  radicals  at  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, was  made  manifest  by  the  measures  they  pursued  while 
the  First  Continental  Congress  was  still  in  session.^  The 
General  Committee  prevented  a  merchant  from  filling  an 
order  for  the  exportation  of  arms  and  ammunition.  They 
warned  the  merchants  against  the  mercenary  practice  of 
engrossing  and  recommended  that  the  merchants  should 
receive  only  their  customary  prtjfits.  They  actively  pro- 
moted an  association  for  the  non-consumption  of  India  teas, 
dutied  or  otherwise,  to  be  effective  on  November  i ;  and 
at  their  instigation  the  schoolboys  of  the  city  collected 
from  private  houses  the  tea  that  remained  on  that  day  and 
burned  it  publicly  en  Gunpowder  Plot  Day,  November  5. 
Twenty-four  chests  of  tea  were  discovered  in  the  cargo  of 

^  N.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix.  pp.  1090- 11 50  passim. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1145-1146. 

^S.  C.  Gar.,  Oct.  17.  31,  Nov.  21,  i774- 


^26  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  ship  Britannia  which  arrived  from  London  in  the  first 
few  days  of  November,  and  the  merchants  to  whom  they 
were  consigned  were  induced  by  the  committee  to  go  on 
board  and  throw  the  tea  into  the  river.  On  the  same  day 
six  chests  of  smuggled  tea  were  re-shipped  to  the  port 
whence  they  had  come,  with  a  caution  to  the  shipper  not  to 
venture  any  more. 

The  non-importation  regulations  of  the  Association 
were  enforced  with  as  great  impartiality  and  enthusiasm. 
Although  the  details  of  the  transactions  have  not  come 
down  to  us,  Timothy's  Gazette  makes  it  evident  that  im- 
portations arriving  between  December  i,  1774,  and  Feb- 
ruary I,  1775,  were  sold  at  committee  auction  almost  as 
quickly  as  the  vessels  arrived.^  After  February  i,  the 
committee  displayed  great  diligence  in  effecting  the  return 
of  cargoes  without  landing  any  part  of  them.  Three  ves- 
sels arrived  in  February :  one  was  turned  away ;  and  in  the 
case  of  the  other  two,  the  consignees  preferred  to  cast  into 
the  sea  their  merchandise,  consisting  of  3844  bushels  of 
salt,  35  caldrons  of  coal,  45,500  tiles  and  two  tons  of  pota- 
toes, rather  than  return  it.^  In  March,  four  more  vessels 
were  turned  away.^  Of  the  brigantine  Industry,  Timothy's 
Gazette  remarked  laconically :  "  Nothing  was  landed  but  a 
Man,  his  Wife,  and  six  fine  Children." 

The  affair  of  Robert  Smyth  brought  the  zeal  of  the  popu- 
lace into  play.  Smyth  had  returned  to  Charleston  in  the 
snow  Proteus,  bringing  with  him  from  London  his  house- 
hold furniture  and  two  horses  that  belonged  to  him.  Upon 
an  appeal  to  the  General  Committee  it  was  decided  by  a 
bare  majority  of  the  thirty-three  members  present  that  this 

1  E.  g.,  vide  S.  C.  Gas.,  Dec.  ig,  26,  1774. 

^  Ihid.,  Feb.  27,  Mch.  6,  1775.     Vide  also  letter  in  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post- 
Boy,  Apr.  3. 
'5".  C.  Gas.,  Mch.  6,  13,  27,  Apr.  3,  1775. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


527 


importation  did  not  violate  the  spirit  of  the  Association. 
This  decision  caused  miitterings  and  threats  among  the 
people,  and  a  couple  of  days  later  a  petition,  signed  by 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  people,  was  presented  to 
the  General  Committee,  asking  for  a  reconsideration  of  the 
decision  in  a  full  meeting.  In  consequence,  another  meet- 
ing was  held  at  which  seventy  members  were  present  as  well 
as  a  great  crowd  of  the  tumultuous  townsmen.  Gadsden 
moved  to  rescind  the  part  of  the  former  vote  that  had 
authorized  the  landing  of  the  horses.  He  urged  that  it  was 
contrary  to  the  Association ;  that  it  would  alarm  the  north- 
ern provinces;  that,  in  any  case,  the  committee  as  servants 
of  the  people,  were  bound  to  yield  to  their  constituents.  On 
the  other  side,  Thomas  Lynch,  the  Rutledges  and  Rawlins 
Lowndes  were  the  chief  speakers.  They  contended  that  to 
reverse  the  vote  would  be  to  cast  contempt  upon  the  com- 
mittee ;  and  that  the  spirit,  not  the  letter,  of  the  Association 
should  be  observed.  William  H.  Drayton  arose  in  reply. 
He  argued  that  if  the  committee  refused  to  change  for  fear 
of  contempt,  the  king  of  England  might  reasonably  use  the 
same  justification  for  his  course;  and,  furthermore,  that  it 
was  always  safer  to  follow  the  letter  than  to  explore  the 
spirit  of  a  law.  When  the  vote  was  put,  Gadsden's  motion 
prevailed  by  a  vote  of  thirty-five  to  thirty-four.^  "  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,"  Drayton  records,  "  that  this  is  the  first 
instance  of  a  point  of  importance  and  controversy  being 
carried  against  those  by  whose  opinion  the  people  had  been 
long  governed." 

Like  the  other  plantation  provinces,  the  radicals  sought 
to  safeguard  the  operation  of  the  Association  by  endeavor- 
ing to  paralyze  the  pecuniary  power  of  the  mercantile  class. 
The  provincial  congress  of  January.  1775,  passed  a  unani- 

^  Drayton,  Memoirs,  vol.  i,  pp.  182-187;  S.  C.  Gas.,  Mch.  27,  1775. 


^28  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

mous  resolution  vesting  the  local  committees  of  observation 
witli  complete  control  oyer  prosecutions  for  debt.  No 
action  for  debt  should  be  commenced  in  the  court  of  com- 
mon pleas,  nor  any  such  action  begun  there  since  the  Sep- 
tember return  should  be  proceeded  in,  without  the  consent 
of  the  parish  or  district  committee.  In  certain  cases  the 
committees  were  instructed  to  permit  prosecution :  when- 
ever debtors  refused  to  renew  their  obligations  or  to  give 
reasonable  security;  when  they  were  justly  suspected  of  an 
intention  to  depart  the  province  or  defraud  their  creditors ; 
or  whenever  there  should  appear  any  other  reasonable  cause 
for  granting  permission.^ 

The  only  action  in  behalf  of  domestic  production  ema- 
nated from  the  provincial  congress  in  January.  The  in- 
habitants were  asked  to  give  a  preference  to  their  own 
manufactures,  to  cultivate  cotton,  hemp,  wheat,  barley  and 
hops,  and  to  kill  no  sheep  for  sale  after  March  i  following. 
A  resolution  was  passed  to  employ  storekeepers  at  Charles- 
ton, Georgetown  and  Beaufort  to  buy  all  the  wool  that 
might  be  brought  to  them,  at  stated  rates,  and  to  sell  the 
wool  to  weavers  at  cost  price ;  and  also  to  market  domestic 
linens,  woolens  and  cottons  without  charge  to  the  manu- 
facturers.^ Apparently  not  so  much  attention  was  paid  to 
the  sumptuary  regulations  as  in  Virginia  and  Maryland. 
However,  the  mourning  regulations  were  widely  observed. 
Also,  at  Charleston  the  concerts  of  the  St.  Coecilia  Society 
were  suspended;  and  the  races  at  Georgetown  were  called 
off.^ 

All  things  considered,  the  statement  of  the  General  Com- 
mittee in  a  letter  to  the  Committee  of  Sixty  at  New  York 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1113. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1112-1113,  1 1 16. 

'  S.  C.  G05.,  Nov.  21,  Dec.  19.  1774. 


IN  THE  P  LA  XT  ATI  ON  PROJ-INCES  529 

on  March  i,  1775,  seems  well  substantiated  so  far  as  the 
essential  features  of  the  Association  were  concerned.  "  We 
have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you,"  the  letter  said,  "  that  in 
this  colony  the  Association  takes  place  as  effectually  as  law 
itself.  .  .  .  We  may  assure  you  of  our  fixed  determination 
to  adhere  to  the  resolutions  at  all  hazards ;  and  that  minis- 
terial opposition  is  here  obliged  to  be  silent."  ^ 

While  the  Continental  Association  was  being  put  into 
operation  in  the  twelve  Associated  Provinces,  certain 
other  parts  of  continental  British  America,  of  lesser  im- 
portance, held  sternly  aloof  from  the  movement.  This 
brought  into  operation  the  comprehensive  boycott  recom- 
mended by  Article  xiv  against  dissentient  provinces.  South 
Carolina  was  most  intimately  concerned  in  the  failure  of 
Georgia  to  join  the  league  of  provinces,  as  the  staples  of 
the  two  provinces  were  the  same.  Therefore,  on  February- 
s' 1775-  the  General  Committee  at  Charleston  decreed  that 
thereafter  all  "Trade,  Commerce,  Dealings  or  Intercourse" 
should  cease  with  the  inhabitants  of  that  province." 

A  few  weeks  later  delegates  from  St.  John's  Parish  in 
Georgia  arrived  in  Charleston  and  sought  to  show  reason 
to  the  General  Committee  why  St.  John's  Parish  should  be 
exempted  from  the  boycott.  They  contended  that  Article 
xiv  should  "  be  considered  as  a  general  rule  only,  and  as 
respects  this  Province  [Georgia]  considered  in  a  mixed  or 
promiscuous  sense;  but,  as  we  of  this  Parish  are  a  body 
detached  from  the  rest  by  our  Resolutions  and  Association, 
and  sufficiently  distinct  by  local  situation,  large  enough  for 
particular  notice  ....  adjoining  a  sea-port  .  .  .  ,  there- 

^  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  Apr.  6,  1775 ;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  2. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1 163;  also  S.  C.  Gas.,  Mch.  6,  1775.  South  Caro- 
linians, owning  plantations  in  Georgia  or  having  debts  due  from  there, 
were  specifically  exempted  from  the  terms  of  the  resolution. 


^30  THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

fore  Vve  must  be  considered  as  comprehended  within  the 
spirit  and  equitable  meaning  of  the  Continental  Associa- 
tion." But  the  General  Committee  felt  constrained  to  ad- 
here to  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  Association,  and  ad- 
vised the  people  of  St.  John's  to  present  their  case  before 
the  ensuing  Continental  Congress.^  This  course  the  St. 
John's  committee  perforce  determined  to  adopt.  Meantime, 
being  denied  trade  with  South  Carolina,  the  parish  found  it 
impossible  to  subsist  without  some  limited  trading  connec- 
tions with  the  merchants  at  Savannah;  and  so  they  were 
forced  to  forego  an  absolute  boycott  for  a  carefully  regu- 
lated trade  under  the  supervision  of  a  committee  especially 
appointed  for  the  purpose." 

Georgia  was  not  the  only  British  province  on  the  conti- 
nent to  be  delinquent  on  this  important  occasion,  although 
it  was  the  only  one  of  the  old  thirteen  in  w^iich  the  Conti- 
nental Association  was  not  being  effectively  executed.  The 
First  Continental  Congress  had  invited  Quebec,  St.  John's 
Isle/  Nova  Scotia,  and  East  and  West  Florida  to  accede  to 
the  Association ;  *  and  the  threat  of  boycott  in  Article  xiv 
applied,  by  its  terms,  to  "  any  colony  or  province  in  North- 
America."  Not  one  of  these  places  was  of  importance 
commercially;  but  it  was  deemed  desirable  by  the  radical 
party  that  British  America  should  offer  a  united  front  to 
the  mother  country.  Early  in  February,  1775,  it  developed 
that  there  was  an  inclination  among  the  British  merchants 
in  the  city  of   Quebec  to  adopt  the  Association;  but  no 

1  5".  C.  Gac,  Mch.  6,  1775;  also  4  -^'«-  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1161-1163. 

^Journals  Cont.  Cong.  (L.  C.  Edn.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  45-48-  For  Gov- 
ernor Wright's  view  of  this  arrangement,  vide  White,  Ga.  Hist.  Colls., 
p.  523- 

*  The  early  name  for  Prince  Edward  Island. 

*  Journals  Cont.  Cong.,  vol.  i,  pp.  loi,  103,  105-113. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


53^ 


action  was  taken  because,  according  to  one  merchant  there, 
"  it  would  only  serve  to  throw  the  trade  out  of  our  own 
hands  into  those  of  the  French,  who  would  never  listen  to 
any  proposals  of  that  kind  but  rejoice  in  such  an  opportun- 
ity to  wrest  the  trade  from  us."  ^  It  was  true  of  all  these 
regions  that,  due  to  a  preponderance  of  aliens  in  the  popu- 
lation, a  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  constitutional 
and  governmental  principles  at  stake  was  lacking.  Further- 
more, the  inhabitants  relished  the  prospect  of  diverting  to 
themselves  the  rich  trade  which  had  been  monopolized  by 
the  older  and  more  populous  communities.' 

After  a  lull  of  several  weeks  following  the  action  of 
South  Carolina  with  reference  to  Georgia,  the  northern 
provinces  began  to  pass  resolutions  of  boycott  which 
affected  all  the  dissentient  provinces.  On  April  17,  the 
Philadelphia  committee  served  warning  on  the  local  mer- 
chants that  such  a  measure  impended;  and  ten  days  later 
a  resolution  was  adopted  for  suspending  all  exportation  to 
Georgia,  Quebec,  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland  and  all  parts 
of  the  fishing  coasts  and  fishing  islands  until  the  Continental 
Congress  should  direct  otherwise.^  The  fisheries  were  in- 
cluded in  the  boycott  because  of  the  news,  recently  received, 
of  the  act  of  Parliament  restraining  New  England  from 
the  fisheries.  On  May  i,  the  Maryland  provincial  conven- 
tion passed  a  similar  resolution,  and  in  turn  extended  the 
boycott  to  include  the  town  of  Boston,  which  was  now 
occupied  by  the  British  forces  as  an  armed  camp  after  the 
fighting  at  Lexington  and  Concord.*    On  the  same  day  the 

^Letter  of  Dec.  24,  1774,  Pa.  Packet,  Feb.  13,  i775;  also  Mass.  Gas. 
&  Post-Boy,  Feb.  27. 

*£.  g.,  vide  Pub.  Rec.  Off.,  C.  O.  5,  no.  138  {L.  C.  Transcripts), 
p.  404;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1164-1165. 

''Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  338,  421;  also  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  Apr.  18,  29,  1775. 

*  Md.  Gas.,  May  4,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  380. 


r^^2  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S-1776 

New  York  committee  took  like  action ;  ^  and  the  committees 
of  Cumberland  County,  Va.,  and  Newark,  N.  J.,  followed 
later  in  the  month.' 

When  the  Second  Continental  Congress  assembled  on  the 
tenth  of  May,  one  of  the  first  questions  that  had  to  be 
settled  concerned  the  status  of  St.  John's  Parish  under  the 
Association.  Dr.  Lyman  Hall  presented  himself  as  the 
delegate  of  the  parish,  and  his  admission  to  the  membership 
was  voted  unanimously.^  On  the  seventeenth  when  a  reso- 
lution was  passed  suspending  exportation  to  all  the  recal- 
citrant provinces,  St.  John's  Parish  was  expressly  exempted 
from  its  terms.  The  resolution  applied  to  the  rest  of 
Georgia,  to  Quebec,  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  St.  John's 
Isle,  East  and  West  Florida,  and  the  British  fisheries  on  the 
American  coasts.*  Thus,  so  far  as  action  of  Congress 
could  effect  it,  the  export  trade  of  the  twelve  Associated 
Provinces  was  withheld  from  these  parts.  The  provincial 
congress  of  New  Jersey  took  occasion  on  May  26  to  recom- 
mend to  the  people  of  that  province  to  adhere  "  religiously  " 
to  the  resolution,^  and  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses 
took  a  similar  step  on  June  19.^  On  June  7,  the  Wilming- 
ton. N.  C,  committee  voted  to  withhold  all  exportations 
destined  for  the  British  army  and  navy,  for  Newfoundland. 
and  for  the  northern  provinces  from  whence  provisions 
could  be  had  for  these  purposes.'^ 

^■Z  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  469;  also  N.  Y.  Journ.,  May  4,  1775. 

*  Purdie's  Va.  Gas.,  July  7,  1775,  and  A'.  Y.  Journ.,  June  i ;  also  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  622,  634. 

*  He  was  not  permitted  to  vote  in  cases  where  the  ballot  was  taken 
by  provinces.    Journals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  44-45,  49-50- 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  54. 

*Ar,  Y.  Gas.,  May  29,  1775;  also  /  A'.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  pp.  597-598- 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  1221. 

''  A''.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  x,  p.  12. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


533 


These  resolutions,  it  would  appear,  were  excellently  kept. 
For  example,  the  Philadelphia  committee  in  May  prevented 
the  departure  of  two  cargoes  intended  for  Newfoundland ;  ' 
and  in  September  the  New  York  committee  held  up  for 
public  neglect  the  owners  of  two  vessels  that  had  been 
trading  with  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland."  The  effect 
of  the  boycott  was  not  what  had  been  expected.  Deep  dis- 
tress was  experienced  at  Newfoundland  and  the  various 
fishing  settlements  because  of  their  reliance  on  New  Eng- 
land for  food ;  but  after  a  time  the  British  government  suc- 
ceeded in  affording  them  some  relief,  and  they  were  also 
su-reptitiously  aided  by  the  enterprise  of  Nantucket  fisher- 
men.^ The  people  of  East  Florida  also  found  themselves 
temporarily  in  want  of  provisions.*  Quebec  and  Nova 
Scotia,  as  has  been  already  noted,  probably  felt  no  serious, 
inconvenience  and  were,  on  the  other  hand,  receiving  en- 
hanced prices  in  the  West  Indies  for  their  grain,  flour  and 
flax-seed.^  Only  Georgia  found  herself  in  distress,  with- 
out prospect  of  relief,  and  torn  by  civil  discord.  But  Geor- 
gia's adhesion  to  the  Continental  Association  was  to  come 
only  through  the  shock  caused  by  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 

^  Journals,  vol.  ii,  p.  52. 

"iV.  Y.  Gas.,  Sept.  4,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  622-624. 

'  Letters  from  Newfoundland  in  A".  Y.  Journ.,  June  29,  Aug.  24,  1775, 
English  exports  to  Newfoundland  increased  from  £77,26^  in  1774  to 
£130,280  in  1775.  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  564,  585. 
The  act  of  16  George  III,  c.  27,  permitted  the  exportation  of  peas  and 
biscuit  to  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia  and  Labrador. 

*4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  703-707.  English  exports  to  Florida  in- 
creased from  £S2,iA9  in  1774  to  £85,254  in  1775.  Macpherson,  op.  cit., 
vol.  iii,  pp.  564,  585. 

^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1164-1165;  Pub.  Rec.  Off.,  C.  O.  5,  no.  138 
(L.  C.  Transcripts),  p.  404.  At  Quebec  English  imports  increased  from 
^307,635  in  1774  to  £472,368  in  1775;  at  Nova  Scotia,  from  £47,148  to 
£56,308.     Macpherson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  564,  585- 


1^34  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Before  the  Continental  Association  had  been  in  effect 
many  weeks  it  had  become  perfectly  evident  not  only  that 
provinces  and  towns  that  held  aloof  from  the  Association 
must  be  boycotted  but  that  a  close  degree  of  co-operation 
must  be  maintained  among  the  Associated  Provinces  in 
order  to  prevent  evasions  of  the  compact  by  means  of  the 
coastwise  trade.  About  the  middle  of  November,  1774,  a 
Salem  merchant  engaged  in  coastwise  trade  with  Virginia 
requested  of  the  Salem  Committee  of  Correspondence  a 
certificate  vouching  for  his  firmness  in  the  cause  of  Amer- 
ical  liberty,  so  that  he  might  carry  it  with  him.  This  being 
an  innovation,  the  Salem  committee  consulted  with  the 
Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence;  and  the  reply  was 
a  whole-hearted  endorsement  of  the  plan  and  the  suggestion 
that  the  device  be  regularly  employed.^  The  committees  of 
the  other  provinces  fell  in  with  the  plan  sooner  or  later. 
Providence,  Rhode  Island,"  and  the  Virginia  counties  being 
among  the  first. ^  The  best  form  of  certificate  was  that 
prescribed  by  the  Philadelphia  committee  in  June,  1775. 
The  importer  of  merchandise  into  that  metropolis  was  re- 
quired either  to  produce  a  certificate  from  the  committee 
from  whence  the  goods  had  come  signifying  that  they  had 
been  imported  into  America  in  accordance  with  the  Asso- 
ciation, or  to  produce  a  qualification,  taken  before  a  magis- 
trate, testifying  to  the  identity  of  the  goods,  the  time  of 
importation  into  America,  and  the  name  of  the  vessel  in 
which  they  had  been  brought.*  A  few  months  later,  when 
the  object  was  not  only  to  safeguard  the  Association  but 
also  to  prevent  provisions  and  merchandise  from  reaching 

^  Bos.  Com.  Cor.  Papers,  vol.  iii,  pp.  651,  653. 

*  R.  L  Col.  Rccs.,  vol.  vii,  pp.  285-287. 

^  Richmond.    Westmoreland,    Prince    William.    Prince    George    and 
Accomack.     Vide  the  Virginia  nevrspapers,  Feb.- June,  1775,  passim. 

*  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  June  8.  1775;  also  4  Am.  A.rHi.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  909-910. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  535 

the  British  army,  the  provincial  bodies  of  Massachusetts 
and  New  York  required  that  coastwise  traders  should  give 
bond  that  the  goods  they  took  away  would  be  landed  at  the 
destination  named.  ^  These  precautions  aided  greatly  in 
simplifying  the  enforcement  of  the  Association  for  indi- 
vidual provinces. 

It  is  now  possible  to  reach  some  conclusions  with  refer-       \y^ 
ence  to  the  workings  of  the  Continental  Association  in  the 
twelve  Associated  Provinces  during  the  first  four  and  a  half 
months.      In   general,   the  situation   bore   a  very  hopeful 
aspect  for  those  Americans  who  believed  that  the  salvation 
of  British  America  depended  upon  an  effective  administra- 
tion of  the  Association.     The  administrative  machinery  of 
the  Association  had  been  established  in  the  twelve  prov- 
inces; and  all  features  of  the  document,  which  were  in- 
tended to  have  a  coercive  eft'ect  upon  the  mother  country, 
were  being  vigorously  enforced.     Indeed,  the  Association 
was  receiving  a  more  faithful  obedience  than  the  provincial 
laws  ordinarily  did,  as  many  a  royal  governor  mournfully 
testified.     While  it  has  not  been  possible  to  obtain  statistics 
confined  to  the  period  of  non-importation  which  is  now 
being  particularly  examined,  yet  the  comparative  figures  of 
importations  during  the  years  1774  and  1775  are  a  sugges- 
tive index  to  the  true  condition  of  affairs.    English  imports 
fell  off  from  £562,476  in  1774  to  £71,625  in  1775  in  the 
New  England  provinces;  from  £437,937  to  £1.228  at  New 
York:    from   £62^,6^2   to   £1.366   at    Philadelphia;    from 
£528,738  to  £1,921   in  Maryland  and  Virginia; 'and  from 
£378.116  to  £6,245  in  the  Carolinas."    The  total  decline  in 
the  import  trade  from  England  in  1775  as  compared  with 

'  4  Am.  Ari-1:..  vol.  iii,  pp.  1468,  1623. 

^  Macphcrson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  564.  S85. 


536 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


the  preceding  year  was  almost  ninety-seven  per  cent.  Mak- 
ing due  allowance  for  such  part  of  this  disparity  as  came 
from  the  abnormal  importations  in  the  latter  part  of  1774, 
the  contrast  still  remains  an  eloquent  testimonial  to  the 
activity  and  efficiency  of  the  radical  organization.  In  the 
same  period  imports  into  Georgia  only  increased  from 
£57,518  to  £133.377- 

Further  evidence  of  the  effective  enforcement  of  the 
Association  was  afforded  by  the  course  pursued,  in  the 
early  months  of  1775,  by  the  business  men  in  Great  Britain 
who  possessed  American  connections  and  investments.  Al- 
though they  had  watched  indift'erently  while  Parliament 
passed  the  coercive  acts  of  1774,^  they  were  now  galvanized 
into  sudden  activity  by  the  realization  that  the  American 
Association  w^as  closing  their  chief  markets  to  them.^  Be- 
ginning in  January  and  continuing  for  almost  three  months, 
the  merchants  and  manufacturers  concerned  in  the  Amer- 
ican trade  carried  on  a  systematic  propaganda  for  the  pur- 
pose of  convincing  the  ministry  and  Parliament  that  the 
acts  of  1774  should  be  repealed.  The  movement  was  in- 
augurated by  a  series  of  meetings  of  the  London  merchants 
in  the  North  American  trade  at  King's  Arms  Tavern  at 
Cornhill,^  and  by  joint  meetings  of  the  West  India  mer- 
chants and  the  absentee  proprietors  of  West  Indian  planta- 
tions at  London  Tavern.*  Petitions  were  addressed  to  Par- 
liament, and  word  was  sent  to  the  manufacturing  towns  to 

^  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  May  16,  1774;  Mass.  Spy,  July  15. 

*  E.  g.,  a  commercial  correspondent  declared  in  a  London  newspaper 
that  from  January  i  to  April  27,  1775,  the  following  ships  cleared  from 
Bristol  carrying  nothing  but  ballast :  seven  for  New  York,  three  for 
Maryland,  three  for  Philadelphia,  three  for  Virginia,  one  for  North 
Carolina,  and  three  for  South  Carolina.  N.  Y.  Gazetteer,  Aug.  24, 
1/75 ;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  921-922. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1086-1091,  1107-1110,  1513-1515,  1525-1526. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1082-1083,  1147-1152,  1540. 


7.V  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES  537 

join  in  the  agitation/  The  latter  responded  with  alacrity. 
When  Parliament  reassembled  on  January  19,  1775,  the 
House  of  Commons  was  deluged  with  petitions  in  the  en- 
suing weeks.  The  merchants,  traders  and  manufacturers 
of  Bristol,  Glasgow,  Birmingham,  Manchester,  Liverpool, 
Leeds,  Belfast,  and  many  other  places  joined  in  the  chorus 
of  lamentation,  complaining  that  business  conditions  were 
already  poor  and  foretelling  the  suspension  of  debt  collec- 
tions, bankruptcy  and  widespread  unemployment." 

But  the  ministry  were  as  adamant.  They  believed  that 
England  was  reaping  the  whirlwind  that  had  been  sown 
when  indulgent  ministries  had  granted  concessions  to  the 
colonists  on  the  occasion  of  the  two  earlier  non-importation 
leagues.  As  one  man  friendly  to  the  ministry  wrote: 
"  there  will  be  no  end  of  it,  if  the  Americans  may  rebel  at 
their  pleasure,  and  then  slip  behind  their  creditors  for 
security."  ''  Solicitor  General  Wedderburn  presented  the 
issue  with  unmistakable  clearness  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. ''  He  gave  every  allowance  for,  and  paid  all  defer- 
ence to,  the  interests  of  Commerce  and  Manufactures ;  but 
contended  that  in  the  present  case  interests  were  concerned 
of  yet  greater  consequence;  that  all  the  world  must  ac- 
knowledge that  when  the  clearest  rights  of  the  Legislative 
power  of  a  country  are  invaded  and  denied,  and  when  in 
consequence  the  people  so  denying  are  in  actual  and  open 

^  Mass.  Gac.  &  News-Letter,  Alch.  23,  1775. 

*  Petitions  also  came  from  Norwich,  Dudley,  Wolverhampton,  New- 
castle, Burslem,  Tunstall,  Colridge,  Shelton,  Hanly,  Stoke  Lane,  Delf 
Lane  End,  Nottingham,  Bridgport,  Wakefield,  Halifax,  Bradford, 
Huddersfield,  Whitehaven,  and  Waterford,  Ireland.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol. 
i,  pp.  1513-1540,  1567,  1627-1638,  1698-1703;  Franklin,  Writings  (Smyth), 
vol.  vi,  pp.  303-308,  315-317.  There  were  a  few  petitions  praying  the 
government  to  stand  firm — from  Birmingham,  Leeds,  Wakefield,  Hali- 
fax, Bradford,  Nottingham  and  Huddersfield,  usually  from  the  alder- 
men, sheriffs,  gentlemen  and  principal  manufacturers. 

^  Mass.  Gaz.  &  Post-Boy,  May  23,  1774. 


538 


THE  COLOXIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


rebellion,  that  then  there  are  points  of  greater  importance 
to  be  settled  and  decided  than  points  of  Commerce  and 
Manufacture.  An  enemy  in  the  bowels  of  a  Kingdom  is 
surely  to  be  resisted,  opposed  and  conquered;  notwith- 
standing the  trade  that  may  suffer,  and  the  fabrics  that 
may  be  ruined.  That  descriptions  of  the  immense  conse- 
quence of  our  American  trade  were  arguments  against  the 
opposing  ^.lembers  than  for  them ;  for  the  greater  the  con- 
sequence of  the  Commerce,  the  greater  the  care  ought  to 
be,  and  the  firmer  the  policy  that  is  to  preserve  it ;  that  the 
question  is  not  now  the  importance  of  the  American  Colo- 
nies, but  the  possession  of  the  Colonies  at  all."  ^ 

For  a  decade  colonial  governors  had  been  urging  that 
Parliament  should  declare  non-importation  agreements 
illegal  as  combinations  in  restraint  of  trade.  Lord  North's 
plan  was  more  penetrating :  "  as  the  Americans  had  refused 
to  trkde' with  this  Kingdom,"  he  was  reported  to  have  said, 
"  it  was  but  just  that  we  should  not  suffer  them  to  trade 
with  any  other  Nation." "  His  first  bill  was  directed 
against  the  New  Englanders,  whom  he  beHe\^ed  to  be  at  the 
bottom  of  the  American  troubles.  This  bill  became  a  law 
on  March  30,  1775,  and  provided  that,  until  peaceful  condi- 
tions of  business  had  been  restored,  no  New  England 
province  should,  after  July  i,  trade  with  any  part  of  the 
world,  save  the  British  Isles  and  the  British  West  Indies, 
nor  after  July  20  should  be  permitted  to  use  the  fisheries.* 

^  Pa.  Ga::.,  Apr.  12.  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  p.  1547.  Vide 
also  ibid.,  pp.  1526-1527,  1624- 1625. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1622:  also  X.  Y.  Joiirn..  Apr.  20,  1775.  North  had 
this  plan  in  mind  as  early  as  September  21,  1774 — before  the  Continental 
Association  had  been  adopted.  Hutchinson,  Diary  and  Letters,  vol.  i, 
p.  245- 

*  15  George  III,  c.  10.  The  inhabitants  of  Xantucket  were  exempted 
from  the  provisions  of  the  act  so  far  as  the  whale  fisheries  were  con- 
cerned, and  the  inhabitants  of  Marshfield  and  Scituate  so  far  as  the 
mackerel,  shad  and  alewife  fisheries  were  concerned. 


IN  THE  PLANTATION  PROVINCES 


539 


Meantime  it  had  become  evident  that  most  of  the  other 
colonies  had  ratified  the  Continental  Association ;  ^  and  so, 
by  Lord  North's  second  bill,  enacted  April  13,  the  terms  of 
the  first  act  were  extended  to  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  Virginia  and  South  Carolina  after  July  20.- 
The  commerce  of  New  York,  the  Delaware  Counties, 
North  Carolina  and  Georgia  was  left  unmolested  for  the 
time  being,  upon  the  belief  that  with  such  encouragement 
these  colonies  would  hold  off  from  union  with  the  Asso- 
ciated Colonies — an  illusory  hope. 

The  indignation  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  in 
Britain,  who  had  thus  been  ignored  and  chastised  by  the 
government,  was  at  first  unbounded.  But  several  events 
soon  transpired  which  reconciled  them  to  the  situation. 
Undoubtedly  the  affair  at  Lexington  and  Concord  in  April 
sharpened  the  understanding  of  many  of  them  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  issues  at  stake.  Equally  important  was  the 
amelioration  of  business  conditions  in  Great  Britain  which 
began  to  be  felt  about  the  middle  of  the  year  1775.  This 
was  in  no  sense  due  to  an}^  relaxation  of  the  enforcement 
of  the  Association  in  Am.erica,  but  to  increased  orders  for 
manufactures  which  began  to  pour  in  from  various  parts 
of  Europe  —  particularly  from  the  Baltic  countries  and 
Germany,  owing  to  the  establishment  of  peace  between 
Russia  and  the  Porte  and  the  pacification  of  Poland,  and 
from  Spain  in  consequence  of  warlike  preparations  against 
Algiers.  At  the  same  time  great  wheat  exportations  from 
America  and  the  advanced  prices  paid  for  American  tobacco 
and  oil  enabled  the  colonial  merchants  to  discharge  their 
debts  better  than  usual,  and  thus  increased  the  amount  of 
capital    which   the    British   merchants    and    manufacturers 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i.  p.  1701. 

*  Exclusion     from    the    fisheries    was    not    included,    however.      15 
'George  III,  c.  18. 


540  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

might  use  in  developing  this  new  business.^  This  anal3^sis 
of  the  revival  of  business  confidence,  made  by  a  gentleman 
of  American  sympathies  in  England,  was  borne  out  by 
abundant  and  indubitable  testimony  of  a  varied  character.^ 
Fortuitous  occurrences  thus  robbed  the  Continental  Asso- 
ciation of  its  coercive  consequences  and  enabled  the  British 
administration  to  develop  its  policy  without  uncomfortable 
pressure  from  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  interests. 
When  Parliament  assembled  in  the  fall  of  1775,  scores  of 
votes  of  confidence  were  presented  from  towns  all  over 
Great  Britain,  and  the  few  mercantile  petitions  that  were 
sent  in  behalf  of  the  Americans  did  not  plead  the  cause  of 
the  colonists  on  the  ground  of  commercial  distress.^  Under 
these  auspicious  circumstances  Parliament,  on  December  23, 
enacted  as  a  war  measure  the  law  that  provided  for  en- 
tirely closing  up  the  thirteen  colonies  to  trade  with  any  part 
of  the  world  after  March  i,  1776.* 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  818. 

*  Macpherson,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  589-591 ;  Izard,  Corresp.,  vol.  i, 
pp.  116-117;  Ptib.  Rec.  Off.,  C.  O.  5,  no.  154  (L.  C.  Transcripts),  pp. 
281-283;  letter  in  A'^.  Y.  Gas.,  Nov.  6,  1775;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.- 
loio-ioii,  1111-1112,  1115-1116,  1261-1262,  1381-1382,  1520,  1641. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  802-1704  passim. 

*  16  George  III,  c.  5. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Transformation  of  the  Association  (April.  1775- 
JuLY,  1776) 

<f  vThe  tocsin  of  war,  sounded  on  the  historic  April  day  at 
Lexington  and  Concord,  wrought  a  radical  change  in  the 
nature  of  the  opposition  directed  by  the  Americans  against 
the  British  measures.  (This  did  not  mean  that  a  struggle 
for  independence  had  begun,  but  it  did  mean  that  armed 
rebellion  had  superseded  commercial  coercion!  as  the  de- 
pendence of  the  radicals  in  their  struggle  for  larger  liber- 
ties. iThereafter  the  Continental  Association  lost  its  dis- 
tinctive character  as  a  method  of  peaceful  coercion ;  it  be-  , 
came  subordinated  to  the  military  necessities  of  the  timesj 
iThe  transformation  which  the  Association  was  under- 
going  revealed  itself  in  live  ways :  in  the  widespread  adop- 
tion of  defense  associations;  in  the  determination  of  the 
Georgia  moderates  to  adopt  the  Continental  Association  as 
a  deterrent  to  the  more  violent  methods  advocated  by  the 
radicals  there;  in  the  spontaneous  action  of  the  extra-legal 
bodies  in  the  several  provinces  in  taking  on  disciplinary  and 
military  functions;  in  the  adoption,  by  provinces  exposed  to 
the  perils  of  war,  of  non-exportation  regulations  prior  to  the 
time  fixed  in  the  Association;  and  in  the  important  altera- 
tions made  in  the  text  of  the  original  Association  by  the 
Second  Continental  Congress^f    | 

News  of  the  gallant  stand  made  by  the  Massachusetts 
minutemen  was  carried  down  the  coast  and  through  the 
-country  by  swift  couriers.  (Jhe  radical  organizations  of  the 

541 


242  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Associated  Colonies  were  faced  with  the  decision  whether 
they  should  follow  the  Massachusetts  extremists  into  armed 
resistance  just  as  they  had  followed  them  a  little  earlier 
into  commercial  opposition. /The  air  was  electric  with  ex- 
citement. ^>As  individuals,  some  radicals  hesitated  or  de- 
serted the  cause;  as  organizations,  they  were  too  deeply 
committed  to  do  anything, but  give  loyal  support  to  their 
brethren  of  Massachusetts.^, The  New  England  group  of 
provinces,  quickened  by  the  hazardous  proximity  of  the 
British  forces,  responded  in  April  and  May  by  reorganizing 
their  militia  and  putting  it  on  a  war  footing.^  Their  action 
hardly  more  than  consolidated  the  military  companies  that 
had  been  drilled  and  equipped  in  the  towns  and  counties 
during  the  several  preceding  months. 

in  the  remaining  provinces  the  almost  invariable  form  of 
action  was  the  adoption  of  defense  associations ;  and  in- 
deed the  same  device  was  also  utilized  by  Connecticut  where 
the  lo3^alists  were  thick  in  Fairfield  County.  •.  This  plan  of 
procedure  was  fashioned  frankly  on  the  principle  of  the  old 
associations  for  commercial  coercion;  and  acting  through 
the  same  machinery,  it  gained  prestige  by  reason  of  the 
fact.  ,  In  phraseology  the  associations  appeared  to  vary 
according  to  the  character  of  the  population.  In  the  more 
moderate  provinces,  like  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  the 
subscribers  agreed  solemnly  to  "  carry  into  execution  ivhat- 
ever  measures  may  be  recommended  by  the  Continental 
Congress  or  resolved  upon  by  our  Provincial  Convention ;"  * 

'  The  Massachusetts  provincial  congress  had  taken  its  measures  earlier. 
Vide  particularly  the  votes  of  Oct.  26,  1774  and  April  5,  1775.  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  843-845,  1350-1355.  For  the  acts  of  the  other  provinces, 
vide  New  Hampshire  provincial  congress,  May  20,  in  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
652-653;  Rhode  Island  Assembly,  Apr.  25,  in  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  390;  Con- 
necticut Assembly,  Apr.  26,  in  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  411-418. 

'  The  italics  are  Governor  Franklin's,     i  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  x,  p.  592. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  543 

in  ultra-radical  communities,  like  Maryland,  South  Caro- 
lina and  certain  North  Carolina  counties,  the  subscribers 
pledged  their.-'  lives  and  fortunes  "  in  defense  of  the  Amer- 
ican cause.^  But  whatever  the  form,  the  underlying  mean- 
ing of  all  associations  was  the  same.  The  defense  associa-H 
tions  appeared  spontaneously  in  the  various  provinces,  and! 
were  afterwards  usually  adopted  formally  by  the  provincial! 
congress  or  convention  with  the  provision  that  the  male 
adult  inhabitants  be  given  an  opportunity  to  sign,  and  the 
further  provision  frequently  that  the  names  of  dissentients 
be  listed.  The  act  of  signing  the  defense  association  was  a 
more  rigid  test  of  loyalty  to  the  radical  cause  than  acceptance  V 
of  the  Continental  Association  and  largely  superseded  it  in 
public  attention  and  importance. ^^  These  associations  spread 
southward  through  the  Associated  Provinces  in  the  spring 
and  early  summer  of  1775.^ 

The  course  of  New  York  exemplified,  in  its  main  out- 
lines, the  progress  of  the  defense  association  in  every  prov- 

*  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey.  Maryland  and  South  Carolina 
provided  that  lists  of  non-signers  should  be  drawn  up. 

^  The  central  radical  organizations  of  the  several  provinces  adopted 
defense  associations  as  follows :  the  New  York  provincial  congress  on 
May  26,  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i„  p.  1256;  the  New  Jersey  provincial  congress 
on  May  31,  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  6go;  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  on  June  30, 
ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  1172;  the  Maryland  provincial  convention  on  Aug.  12, 
ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  107-108;  the  North  Carolina  provincial  congress  on 
Aug.  23,  ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  187 ;  the  South  Carolina  provincial  congress  on 
June  3,  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  896-897;  the  Connecticut  Assembly  in  October, 
ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  1026.  In  the  Delaware  Counties,  no  record  of  action 
has  been  found ;  however,  an  out-and-out  military  association  was  signed 
in  Kent  County  on  May  25 ;  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  704.  In  Virginia,  it  would 
appear  that  this  method  was  not  tried ;  but  the  militia  was  reorganized 
by  resolution  of  the  provincial  convention  of  Mch.  25,  1775;  ibid.,  vol. 
ii,  pp.  169-170.  Some  of  the  county  associations  in  North  Carolina  were 
more  plainspoken  than  the  association  adopted  by  the  provincial  con- 
gress, being  modeled  on  the  South  Carolina  association;  e.  g.,  ibid.,  vol. 
ii,  p.  1030. 


-^^  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ince/  We  have  Lieutenant  Governor  Colden's  word  that 
"the  first  accounts  of  the  action  between  the  King's  Troops 
and  People  near  Boston  was  spread  with  horrid  and  aggra- 
vating circumstances.  The  Moment  of  Consternation  and 
anxiety  was  seized,  the  People  were  assembled,  and  that 
Scene  of  Violence  and  Disorder  was  begun  which  has  en- 
tirely prostrated  the  Powers  of  Government  and  produced 
an  Association  by  which  this  Province  has  solemnly  united 
with  the  others  in  resisting  the  Acts  of  Parliament."  "  For 
nearly  a  week  after  the  receipt  of  the  fateful  news  the  city 
was  ruled  by  the  mob.  Under  the  leadership  of  ultra- 
radicals like  Sears  and  Lamb,  the  arsenal  was  raided  and 
the  muskets  distributed;  the  custom  house  was  shut  up; 
business  was  at  a  standstill ;  and  armed  citizens  paraded 
about  the  streets. 

Out  of  this  "  State  of  anarchy  "  issued  three  things  of 
great  import.  An  association  was  set  on  foot  in  New  York 
city  on  April  29  by  which  the  subscribers,  professing  alarm 
at  the  revenue  plans  of  the  ministry  and  at  "  the  bloody 
scene  now  acting  in  the  Massachusetts-Bay,"  resolved  never 
to  become  slaves,  and  associated,  under  all  the  ties  of  re- 
ligion, honor  and  love  of  country,  to  carry  into  execution 
whatever  measures  were  determined  upon  by  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  or  the  provincial  congress  for  the  purpose 
of  preserving  the  constitution  and  opposing  the  arbitrary 
and  oppressive  acts  of  Parliament.^  A  new  committee  of 
one  hundred,  of  more  radical  complexion  even  than  the 
Sixty,  was  chosen  on  May  i  with  power  to  act  in  "  the 
present  unhappy  exigency  of  affairs  as  well  as  to  observe 

^  In  the  following  account,  Professor  Becker's  discussion,  with  his 
references,  has  been  relied  upon  where  no  other  authority  is  cited. 
A''.  Y.  Parties,  1760-1776,  pp.  193-227. 

*  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  402.     Vide  also  ibid.,  p.  404. 

*iV.  Y.  Journ.,  May  4,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  471. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  c^c 

the  conduct  of  all  persons  touching  the  Association."  A 
call  was  sent  out  for  a  provincial  congress  "  at  the  present 
alarming  juncture  "  to  meet  on  May  22.  The  defense  asso- 
ciation was  taken  up  by  the  two  latter  bodies,  when  they 
met,  and  applied  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  as  a 
touchstone  of  their  allegiance  to  the  radical  organization. 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  One  Hundred  on  May  i,  it 
was  resolved  to  offer  the  association  of  April  29  to  every 
inhabitant  in  the  county,  save  Colden  only,  the  names  of 
those  refusing  to  subscribe  to  be  recorded.  In  the  high 
excitement  of  the  hour  the  association  was  quickly  signed 
by  more  than  a  thousand  persons ;  and  within  a  month 
eighteen  hundred  had  subscribed  in  the  city  alone.  ^  On 
May  26  a  resolution  was  passed  by  the  provincial  congress 
that  all  members  be  desired  to  sign  the  association  of  April 
29 ;  and  arrangements  were  made  for  county  committees  to 
tender  the  association  to  every  inhabitant  of  the  province 
and  return  to  the  congress  a  list  of  signers  and  non-signers 
not  later  than  July  15.  No  penalty  for  dissentients  was 
imposed.  By  the  time  fixed,  the  defense  association  had 
been  subscribed  by  one  hundred  members  of  the  provincial 
congress,  fourteen  failing  to  do  so.  "  The  official  returns 
show  in  five  districts  of  Orange  County  approximately 
1,550  signers  and  250  non-signers;  in  seven  districts  of 
Ulster  County,  approximately  1,770  and  80  non-signers; 
in  seven  or  eight  districts  of  Suffolk  County,  2,060  signers 
and  200  non-signers;  in  six  precincts  of  Dutchess  County. 
1,680  signers  and  882  non-signers;  in  one  district  of  Char- 
lotte County,  no  signers;  in  three  districts  of  Cumberland 
County,  123  signers  and  10  non-signers;  in  Queens  County, 
17  signers  and  209  non-signers." 

'Colden,  Letter  Books,  vol.  ii,  p.  4.^4.  Colden  added,  however: 
"  there  must  be  at  least  three  Times  that  number  who  have  an  equal 
Right  to  Sign.'" 


-46  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

By  September  the  policy  of  the  provincial  congress  toward 
non-signers  began  to  be  defined.  "Although  this  Congress 
have  a  tender  regard  for  freedom  of  speech,  the  rights  of 
conscience,  and  personal  liberty,"  declared  the  resolution  of 
September  i,  yet,  for  the  public  safety,  any  person  denying 
the  authority  of  the  provincial  or  continental  congress  or 
any  county  or  district  committee  should  be  disarmed,  and, 
for  a  second  offense,  should  be  confined  at  his  own  expense. 
This  vote  did  not  apply  in  terms  to  non-signers;  and  two 
weeks  later  the  provincial  committee  of  safety  voted  to 
disarm  all  of  the  latter  by  force  if  necessary.  This  was 
disapproved  by  the  provincial  congress  in  October;  and 
there  the  matter  rested  until  March,  1776,  when  the  com- 
mittee of  safety  again  ordered  the  disarming  of  non- 
associators.  This  time  the  provincial  congress  gave  its 
support. 

The  net  outcome  of  the  circulation  of  the  defense  asso- 
ciation was  that  the  Continental  Association  was  elbowed 
into  the  background ;  for  the  new  association  by  its  spirit 
not  only  exacted  obedience  to  the  old  regulations  of  commer- 
cial opposition,  but  in  explicit  terms  demanded  allegiance 
to  unnamed  radical  measures  yet  to  be  formulated.  Inci- 
dentally the  propaganda  attendant  upon  the  promotion  of 
the  defense  association  had  served  the  purpose  of  extend- 
ing radical  organization  into  rural  parts  of  New  York  that 
had  been  untouched  on  the  several  earlier  occasions. 

Of  the  old  British  provinces.  Georgia  had  succeeded 
I  thus  far  in  holding  off  from  any  union  in  measures  against 
I  Great  Britain.  The  widespread  resolutions  of  censure  and 
i  boycott  had  not  been  without  a  chastening  influence  on  her ; 
i  but  it  was  the  news  of  the  beginning  of  hostilities  that,  by 
'  a  curious  indirection,  now  brought  Georgia  over  to  the  side 
of  the  Continental  Association.^     In  June,  1775,  a  defense 

'  Wright  to  Gage,  June  27,  1775 ;  Gibbes,  Doc'y  History,  vol.  ii,  pp.  98-99. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


547 


association,  copied  verbatim  from  the  New  York  associa- 
tion of  April  29,  was  circulated  in  various  parts  of  the 
province/  The  Georgia  moderates  perceived  that,  in  spite 
of  the  success  of  their  obstructive  tactics  hitherto,  the  flood- 
tide  of  insurrection  surging  high  in  other  provinces  threat- 
ened to  sweep  the  malcontents  of  Georgia  into  extreme 
measures  unless  discreet  concessions  were  made.  Whereas 
the  moderates  had  opposed  the  adoption  of  the  Continental 
Association  when  the  alternative  was  peaceful  opposition  to 
Great  Britain  or  no  opposition,  many  of  them  were  now 
willing  to  join  in  pacific  measures  of  opposition  when  the 
choice  seemed  to  lie  between  that  alternative  and  the  immi- 
nence of  violent  resistance."  This  at  once  made  possible  a 
coalition  of  the  more  progressive  moderates  with  the  more 
conservative  radicals  of  the  Savannah  stamp. ^  It  was  this 
union  of  factions  that  sought  to  control  the  movement  for 
a  provincial  congress,  called  for  July  4,  1775. 

At  a  caucus  held  at  Savannah  on  June  1 3  and  attended  by 
thirty-four  citizens,  many  of  whom  later  joined  the  British 
side,  the  program  of  the  coalition  was  formulated  as  fol- 
lows :  ( I )  "  we  will  use  our  utmost  endeavours  to  preserve 
the  peace  and  good  order  of  this  Province ;  ...  no  person 
behaving  himself  peaceably  and  inoffensively  shall  be 
molested  in  his  person  or  property  "  notwithstanding  his 

^^  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1136-1137;  vol.  ii,  pp.  1551-1552.  Vide  also 
ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  471. 

*  Vide  Wright's  letter  10  Dartnioiith ;  Ca.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  iii,. 
p.  183.  Read  Dr.  Zubly's  sermon  at  the  opening  of  the  provincial  con- 
gress in  the  light  of  this  interpretation.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1557- 
1567.     Zubly  became  a  loyalist  eventually. 

*  "  From  Georgia  we  learn  that  a  Coalition  of  Parties  is  likely  to  take 
place,"  said  the  S.  C.  &  Am.  Gen.  Gas.,  July  7,  1775.  "  The  Tories  in 
Georgia  are  now  no  more;  the  Province  is  almost  universally  on  the 
right  side,  and  are  about  to  choose  Delegates  to  send  to  the  Congress," 
wrote  a  Charlestonian  on  June  29;  Pa.  Gas.,  July  19,  also  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  ii,  p.  1 129. 


248  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

private  sentiments;  (2)  in  the  absence  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, the  provincial  congress  should  adopt  a  petition  to 
the  king  for  redress  of  grievances,  expressive  of  the  sense 
of  all  who  choose  to  sign  it;  (3)  the  interest  of  Georgia  is 
inseparable  from  that  of  the  mother  country  and  all  the 
sister  provinces,  and  to  act  apart  from  the  latter  would  be  a 
just  cause  for  their  resentment;  (4)  Georgia  ought  forth- 
with to  "  join  the  other  Provinces  in  every  just  and  legal 
measure  to  secure  and  restore  the  liberties  of  all  /America 
and  for  healing  the  unhappy  divisions  now  subsisting  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies."  ^  On  June  22  a 
meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  and  district  of 
Savannah  at  Liberty  Pole  chose  a  committee  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  out  the  Continental  Association." 

The  moderates  were  pla^nng  with  fire,  but  they  were  left 
with  no  alternative.  The  provincial  congress  of  July  con- 
tained delegates  from  every  part  of  the  province  except 
the  two  small  parishes  of  St.  James  and  St.  Patrick.  Some 
parishes  which  had  hitherto  been  apathetic  or  else  actively 
opposed  to  extra-legal  measures  "  manifested  a  very  Laud- 
able Zeal  upon  this  Occasion."  ^  On  the  second  day  of  the 
meeting,  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Savannah  caucus 
were  presented,  and  the  congress  voted  that  the  paper 
should  "  lie  upon  the  table  for  the  perusal  of  the  members." 
A  few  days  later  the  congress  voted  its  opinion  that  the 
paper  *'  ought  not  to  have  been  entitled  or  dressed  in  the 
form  of  Resolves,  but  rather  as  recommendations,  or  in  the 

*  4  Am.  A^rch..  vol.  ii.  p.   1544. 

*  For  names  of  the  members,  ride  McCall,  Hist.  Ga.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  44-45- 
For  a  slightlj'  different  list,  z-ide  Ga.  Ret\  Recs.,  vol.  i,  p.  72. 

'  Official  communication  of  the  Georgia  congress  to  the  Second  Con- 
tinental Congress;  Journals  Cont.  Cong.,  vol.  ii,  p.  193  n.  The  journal 
of  the  provincial  congress  may  be  found  in  Ga.  Rev.  Recs.,  vol.  i,  pp. 
229-280;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1543-1568. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  549 

nature  of  a  Petition  or  Address  to  this  Congress."  This 
was  fair  warning  that  the  radicals  of  the  St.  John's  stamp 
were  making  themselves  felt  in  the  congress. 

The  Savannah  coalition  were  permitted  to  carry  things 
pretty  largely  their  own  way  during  the  first  few  days. 
The  congress  resolved  unanimously  on  July  6  to  "  carry 
into  execution  all  and  singular  the  measures  and  recom- 
mendations of  the  late  Continental  Congress,"  particularly 
the  Declaration  of  Rights  and  the  Continental  Association. 
The  provisions  of  the  latter  were  re-stated  and  explicitly 
adopted,  with  no  alterations  of  importance.^  A  concession 
was  even  made  to  the  opinion  prevalent  in  the  plantation 
provinces  in  favor  of  a  suspension  of  prosecutions  for  debt : 
no  summons  was  to  be  issued  or  civil  warrant  granted  un- 
less, in  the  opinion  of  the  magistrate  concerned,  there  were 
good  grounds  to  believe  that  the  defendant  intended  to 
abscond.  This  was  a  moderate  version  of  the  popular  reg- 
ulation which  gave  the  supervision  of  actions  for  debt  to 
radical  committees  rather  than  to  provincial  officials.  A 
petition  for  redress  was  sent  to  the  king ;  and  five  delegates, 
one  of  whom  was  loyalist  in  sympathies,  were  chosen  to 
represent  the  province  in  the  Second  Continental  Congress, 
then  in  session. 

At  this  point  the  radical  elements  began  to  assert ,  their 
control.  Strengthened  by  the  sentiment  aroused  by  the 
Lexington  aft'air,  they  were  able  to  carry  through  resolu- 

'  Such  changes  of  date  were  introduced  as  were  made  necessary  by 
the  fact  that  the  non-importation  regulation  was  going  into  effect  at  a 
later  date  than  that  fixed  in  the  original  Association.  The  provision 
in  Article  x  as  to  the  disposition  of  goods  imported  before  February  i 
was  omitted  as  no  longer  applicable.  The  provision  in  Article  xiv 
authorizing  provincial  bodies  to  establish  further  regulations  did  not 
appear.  To  the  list  of  parliamentary  acts  which  must  be  repealed  were 
added  the  two  laws,  lately  passed,  for  restraining  the  trade  of  most  of 
the  colonies. 


--0  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

tions  asserting  the  right  of  the  provincial  congress  to  levy 
taxes  and  issue  paper  money,  and  pledging  Georgia  to  her 
share  of  the  "  expenses  which  have  or  may  accrue  in  the 
defence  of  the  violated  rights  of  America."  They  endorsed 
the  defense  association  which  had  been  circulated  about 
Georgia  in  June  and  appointed  a  committee  to  present  a 
copy  for  the  signature  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  town 
and  district  of  Savannah.  Finally,  they  recommended  that 
in  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  next  provincial  congress 
the  inhabitants  should  pledge  their  lives  and  fortunes  to 
support  the  measures  which  they  might  adopt.  A  general 
committee,  composed  of  the  Savannah  delegates  and  such 
other  delegates  as  might  be  in  town,  was  appointed  to 
supervise  the  execution  of  the  resolutions  of  the  continental 
and  provincial  congresses  and  to  advise  with  all  the  paro- 
chial and  district  committees. 

The  radicals  were  in  the  saddle,  although  their  seat  was 
by  no  means  secure.  The  work  of  establishing  committees 
to  enforce  the  Association  went  f  orw^  ard.  Governor  Wright 
wrote  to  the  home  government  that  there  ''  are  very  few- 
Men  of  real  Abilities,  Gentlemen,  or  Men  of  Property  in 
their  Tribunals.  The  Parochial  Committee  are  a  Parcel  of 
the  Lowest  People.  Chiefly  Carpenters,  Shoemakers.  Black- 
smiths &c.  with  a  Few  at  their  Head ;  in  the  General  Com- 
mittee and  Council  of  Safety  there  are  Some  better  Sort  of 
Men  and  Some  Merchants  and  Planters,  but  Many  of  the 
Inferior  Class;  and  it  is  really  Terrible,  my  Lord,  that 
Such  People  Should  be  Suffered  to  Overturn  the  Civil 
Government  and  most  arbitrarily  determine  upon,  and 
Sport  with  Other  Mens  Lives  Libertys  and  Propertys."  ^ 
The  accession  of  Georgia  to  the  Continental  Association 
relieved  the  province  of  the  ban  placed  on  it  by  the  Conti- 

^  Letter  of  Dec.  19,  i775;  Ga.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  iii.  p.  22S. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


551 


nental  Congress,  although  it  does  not  appear  that  Congress 
took  any  formal  step  to  that  effect  beyond  admitting  the 
Georgia  delegates  to  their  seats/ 

The  non-importation  regulations  of  the  Association  were 
well  enforced  in  Georgia  thereafter.^  On  August  i.  Gov- 
ernor Wright  informed  the  home  government  that:  "The 
Committee  here  take  upon  themselves  to  Order  Ships  and 
Vessells  that  arrive  to  Depart  again  without  suffering  them 
to  come  up  to  Town  and  unload.  Some  they  admit,  some 
they  Order  away  just  as  they  please,  and  exactly  copy  after 
Carolina,  and  are  making  a  very  Rapid  Progress  in  the 
execution  of  their  Assumed  Powers."  ^  A  few  days  later 
he  added  with  reference  to  the  defense  association  that : 
"  Every  Method  has  been  used  to  Compcll  the  People  to 
Sign  the  Association ;  and  those  who  Decline,  they  threaten 
to  Proscribe,  and  for  fear  of  that,  and  losing  their  Prop- 
erty, or  having  it  Destroyed,  Great  Numbers  have  been 
Intimidated  to  Sign,  and  I  suppose  by  far  the  greater  Part 
of  the  Province  have  signed  it;  indeed  it  is  said  there  are 
few  in  the  Country  who  have  not."  "  On  September  23, 
he  described  the  situation  in  Georgia  as :  "  Government 
totally  Annihilated,  and  Assumed  by  Congresses,  Councils 
and  Committees,  and  the  greatest  Acts  of  Tyranny.  Op- 
pression, Gross  Insults  &c  &c  &c  commited,  and  not  the 
least  means  of  Protection.  Support,  or  even  Personal 
Safety  .  .  ."  ^  On  October  14  he  closed  his  case  by  stat- 
ing: "The  Poison  has  Infected  the  whole  Province,  and 

^  The  General  Committee  at  Charleston  revived  trading  connections  on 
August  I,  1775.    S.  C.  Gas.,  Sept.  7,  i775- 

^  E.  g.,  Ga.  Rev.  Recs..  vol.  i,  pp.  81,  90;  Ga.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  210,  215;  Journs.  Cont.  Cong.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  251-252. 

*  Ga.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  iii,  p.  205. 
*Ibid. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  213.  / 


552 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


neither  Law,  Government,  or  Regular  Authority  have  any 
Weight  or  are  at  all  attended  to."  ^ 

The  April  events  had  meanwhile  been  leaving  their  im- 
press on  the  character  and  functions  of  the  committees  of 
^  observation  and  inspection  in  the  several  provinces.  /By 
swift,  though  natural,  stages,  these  committees  appointed 
.  to  enforce  the  Continental  Association  became  the  nuclei 
I  of  military  organization  and  the  engines  for  crushing  loyal- 
ist opinion,  i  In  the  chief  commercial  provinces,  where 
political  activity  radiated  from  the  centers  of  population, 
the  new  functions  devolving  upon  the  committees  were 
frankly  recognized  by  the  selection  of  new  city  committees." 
Where  the  population  was  diffused  and  urban  communities 
vmimportant.  the  central  radical  organization  usually  de- 
creed a  new  establishment  of  committees  for  the  whole 
province,  with  the  dual  purpose  of  standardizing  their 
method  of  selection  and  of  entrusting  them  with  the  addi- 
tional powers  necessitated  by  the  imminence  of  war.^  In 
all  cases  provincial  conventions  and  congresses  were  assem- 
bled to  guide  and  supplement  the  committees  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  new  functions. 

These  committees  were  of  great  practical  assistance  to 
the  patriot  military.     The  wide  scope  of  their  services  may 

'  Ga.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  iii,  p.  215. 

-  Thus,  the  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence,  Safety  and  In- 
spection, appointed  May  i ;  the  New  York  Committee  of  One  Hundred, 
on  May  i ;  the  Philadelphia  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  on  Aug.  16. 
Bos.  Town  Recs.  {1770-1777') ,  p.  22,2,;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  459;  vol. 
iii,  pp.  145-146. 

'Thus,  the  South  Carolina  provincial  congress  on  June  17;  the  New 
Jersey  provincial  congress  on  Aug.  12;  the  Maryland  convention  on 
Aug.  14 ;  the  Virginia  convention  on  Aug.  25 ;  the  North  Carolina  pro- 
vincial congress  on  Sept.  9.  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  1016;  vol.  iii.  pp.  42,  1 14-116, 
420-424,  207-208. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 

be  indicated  by  some  illustrative  instances  in  various  prov- 
inces/ The  Kensington,  N.  H.,  committee  exacted  obe- 
dience from  a  man  who  had  refused  to  equip  himself  with 
arms  and  ammunition  as  directed  by  a  resolution  of  the 
provincial  congress.  The  New  York  committee  declared  a 
boycott  against  any  person  who  should  dispose  of  arms  and 
ammunition  to  any  person  inimical  to  American  liberty. 
The  New  York  provincial  congress  instructed  the  local 
committees  to  purchase  and  rent  weapons,  and  to  organize 
their  jurisdiction  into  "  beats  "  for  the  formation  of  mih- 
tary-  companies.  The  Morris  County,  N.  J.,  committee  col- 
lected arms  and  ammunition  and  promoted  the  enlistment 
of  men.  All  committees  of  the  province  were  instructed  by 
the  New  Jersey  congress  in  October  to  apprehend  deserters 
from  the  American  army.  The  Maryland  committees 
played  an  important  part  in  organizing  and  training  the 
militia  of  the  province.  The  Virginia  committees  under- 
took to  supervise  enlistments  and  to  examine  all  strangers 
and  suspects  for  correspondence  and  the  like.  In  North 
Carolina  four  committees  raised  money  for  the  purchase 
of  gunpowder;  and  the  Newbern  committee  intercepted 
some  letters  written  by  the  governor. 

Efforts  that  had  hitherto  been  turned  to  the  promotion 
of  manufacturing  in  general  were  now  frankly  devoted  to 
the  production  and  increased  output  of  weapons  and  gun- 
powder, saltpetre  and  sulphur.  Some  of  the  money  induce- 
ments offered  for  the  carrying  on  of  such  manufactures 
have  already  been  noted.  Every  province  joined  in  the 
movement  with  zest  and  determination,  through  action  of 
its  central  organization  or  its  local  committees  or  both. 
The  Philadelphia  committee  erected  its  own  saltpetre  works. 

■^  These  examples  and  many  others  like  them  may  be  found  in  4  Am. 
Arch.,  vols,  ii  and  iii.  passim. 


^24  ^-^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

The  Virginia  convention  established  a  factory  at  Fred- 
ericksburg for  the  manufacture  of  arms. 

The  most  characteristic,  if  not  most  important,  aspect  of 
the  new  work  of  the  committees  and  conventions  was  their 
activity  in  drawing  a  sharp  line  between  friends  and  ene- 
mies of  the  American  cause  and  in  converting  and  silencing 
all  opponents.  The  phrase,  "enemies  of  American  liberty," 
had  been  used  in  the  Continental  Association  to  stigmatize 
persons  who  had  actually  violated  the  commercial  regula- 
tions of  that  document;  now  its  meaning  was  rapidly  ex- 
tended to  comprehend  any  persons  who  expressed  verbal 
disapproval  of  any  phase  of  radical  activities,  or  who  acted 
in  an  unfriendly  manner  with  respect  to  them.  Under  the 
Continental  Association  the  only  punishment  visited  on 
offenders  was  the  suspension  of  all  dealings  with  them; 
with  the  new  developments  the  boycott  gave  place,  in  an 
increasing  number  of  cases,  to  such  penalties  as  fine,  im- 
prisonment and  banishment. 

The  radicals  in  Massachusetts  had  already  employed  the 
boycott  in  pointing  out  persons  who  supported  the  Massa- 
chusetts Charter  Act  of  1774,  especially  in  designating  for 
discipline  the  detested  "  mandamus  councillors."  ^  In  Jan- 
uary, 1775,  the  town  of  Marblehead  had  even  deemed  it 
necessar}^  to  appoint  a  committee  "  to  attend  to  the  Con- 
duct of  ministerial  Tools  and  Jacobites  in  this  Town,  and 
to  report  their  Names  to  the  Town  from  Time  to  Time, 
that  it  may  t9,ke  effectual  Measures  for  either  silencing  or 
expelling  them  from  this  Community."  *  With  the  out- 
break of  rebellion,  committees  in  the  other  provinces  as- 
sumed inquisitorial  powers  and  began  a  systematic  cam- 
paign to  suppress  freedom  of  speech  on  the  part  of  the 
loyalists. 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  984,  1000,  1335.  1346. 
'  Mass.  Gas.  &  Post-Boy,  Jan.  t6,  1775. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  355 

Regarding  the  radicals,  "A.  Converted  Whig"  bemoaned: 
*'  In  contending  for  Hberty,  they  seem  inchnable  to  engross 
it  all  themselves;  .  .  .  they  are  arbitrary  and  even  tyran- 
nical in  the  whole  tenour  of  their  conduct;  they  allow  not 
to  others  who  differ  from  them  the  same  liberty  of  thinking 
and  acting  that  they  claim  themselves,  but  shamefully  abuse 
them,  and  treat  them  with  spite,  malice,  and  revenge."  ^ 
The  justification  of  the  radicals  was  neatly  put  in  a  resolu- 
tion of  the  Philadelphia  committee  in  September,  1775: 
"  That,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Committee,  no  person  has  a 
right  to  the  protection  of  a  community  or  society  he  wishes 
to  destroy;  and  that  if  any  inhabitant,  by  speeches  or  writ- 
ing, evidences  a  disposition  to  aid  and  assist  our  enemies, 
or  endeavours  to  persuade  others  to  break  the  Association, 
or  by  force  or  fraud  to  oppose  the  friends  of  liberty  and 
the  Constitution,  .  .  .  such  person,  being  duly  convicted 
thereof  before  the  Committee,  ought  to  be  deemed  a  foe  to 
the  rights  of  British  America,  and  unworthy  of  those  bless- 
ings which  it  is  hoped  will  yet  be  secured  to  this  and  suc- 
ceeding generations  by  the  strenuous  and  noble  efforts  of 
the  United  Colonies."  ^ 

The  nature  and  scope  of  this  new  function  of  the  com- 
mittees may  be  suggested  by  a  few  typical  examples.  Abiel 
Wood  was  deprived  of  the  benefits  of  society  by  the  com- 
mittee of  inspection  of  the  East  Precinct  of  Pownalborough, 
Mass.,  because,  among  other  offenses,  he  had  declared  that 
"  Plancock,  Adams  and  others  acted  out  of  selfish  views  in 
destroying  the  tea  "  and  offered  his  oath  that  Hancock  was 
the  first  man  on  board,  and  because  he  had  stated  that  the 
members  of  the  Continental  Congress  had  drunk  thirty 
bumpers  of  wine  apiece  before  passing  their  resolutions 
and  that  the  provincial  congress  consisted  of  "dam'd  vil- 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  106. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  731 ;  also  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  Sept.  23.  1775- 


556 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


lains."  ^  Abijah  Brown  was  found  guilty  by  the  Waltham 
selectmen  of  having  belittled  the  general  of  the  Massachu- 
setts army  and  the  committeemen  as  "a  set  of  idiots  and 
lunaticks;"  but  he  was  restored  to  public  favor  by  the  pro- 
vincial committee  of  safety  on  the  ground  that  he  had  tem- 
porarily fallen  under  the  influence  of  "disaffected  antag- 
onists." "  The  committee  of  Sheffield,  Mass.,  subjected  Job 
Westover  to  boycott  for  holding  the  sentiment  that  Parlia- 
ment had  a  right  to  tax  the  Americans  and  that  an  Amer- 
ican victory  in  the  impending  war  would  be  prejudicial  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  colonies.^  The  extra-legal  "  Gen- 
eral Court "  recommended  to  the  Corporation  and  Over- 
seers of  Harvard  College  to  dismiss  from  the  faculty  all 
those  who  by  their  present  or  past  conduct  appeared  to  be 
unfriendly  to  the  liberties  of  the  colonies.*  On  May  19  the 
New  Hampshire  congress  recommended  to  the  committees 
to  have  a  watchful  eye  over  all  "  persons  who,  through  in- 
advertence, wilful  malice,  or  immoderate  heat,  have  thrown 
out  many  opprobrious  expressions  respecting  the  several 
Congresses,  and  the  methods  of  security  they  have  thought 
proper  to  adopt  .  .  ."  ° 

The  committee  at  New  Milford,  Conn.,  published  the 
names  of  seven  for  having  declared  their  opposition  to  the 
Continental  Congress  and  announced  the  recantation  of 
forty  others.*^  Amos  Knapp  was  found  guilty  by  the  Green- 
wich committee  of  "  cursing  the  honourable  Continental 

^  Bos.  Gaz.,  Sept.  11,  1775.     For  later  proceedings  with  reference  to 
Wood,  vide  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  151-156,  941. 
'^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  720721. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  545. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  145 1. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  652.     For  examples  of  enforcement,  vide  ibid.,  pp. 
552,  701,  1652,  1659. 

^Conn.  Cour.,  July  3,  1775. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  ^cj 

Congress,  with  all  the  leading  men  of  the  Country,  and 
threatening  to  join  the  enemy,  in  case  the  King's  standard 
was  erected."  '  On  August  4,  the  New  York  committee  held 
one  Archer  up  as  an  enemy  because  he  had  spread  the  report 
that  the  Continental  Congress  had  passed  a  resolution  for 
independence  if  American  grievances  were  not  redressed  by 
March  i."  In  February,  1776,  J.  Thorn  of  Dutchess 
County  was  proscribed  for  refusing  to  accept  continental 
paper  money."  A  boycott  was  declared  against  Ezekiel 
Beach  of  Mendham,  N.  J.,  for  failing  to  appear  before  the 
committee  of  observation  to  defend  himself  against  the 
charge  of  "  unfriendly  conversation  and  conduct  towards 
the  Continental  Association."  *  The  committee  of  Bucks 
County,  Pa.,  accepted  as  satisfactory  the  contrition  ex- 
pressed by  Thomas  Smith  "  for  having  uttered  expressions 
derogatory  to  the  Continental  Congress,  invidious  to  a  par- 
ticular denomination  of  Christians,  and  tending  to  impede 
the  opposition  of  my  countrymen  to  ministerial  oppres- 
sion." " 

The  Dover  committee  in  the  Delaware  Counties  found 
Daniel  Varnum  guilty  of  using  such  expressions  as  "  he 
had  as  lief  be  under  a  tyrannical  King  as  a  tyrannical  Com- 
monwealth, especially  if  the  d d  Presbyterians  had  the 

rule  of  it,"  and  then  accepted  his  recantation.*^  George 
Munro's  unfriendliness  was  discovered  by  the  committee  of 
Bladensburgh,  Md..  through  an  intercepted  letter,  and  his 
protestations  of  contrition  availed  him  nothing.^     Thomas 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  941. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  21. 

'A'.  Y.  Gaz.,  Mch.  11,  1776. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  1610. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  6go. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  1072. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  51-56. 


--8  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Anderson  of  Hanover  County,  Va.,  was  exempted  by  the 
committee  from  further  prosecution  when  he  expressed  his 
deep  sorrow  for  ''  declaring  that  this  Country  was  in  a 
state  of  rebelHon,  and  aimed  at  a  state  of  independence 
more  than  opposition  to  parhamentary  taxation."  ^  The 
committee  of  Pitt  County,  N.  C,  advertised  John  Tison  in 
May  for  speaking  disrespectfully  of  the  committee  and 
Congress,  and  in  October  he  confessed  his  offense  and 
promised  under  oath  never  to  do  the  like  again.^ 

In  the  instances  here  cited,  the  boycott  was  the  punish- 
ment prescribed.  But  the  boycott  was  essentially  a  weapon 
to  be  resorted  to  by  a  minority  in  a  community ;  as  the  gov- 
ernment of  one  community  after  the  other  fell  under  con- 
trol of  the  rebels,  methods  of  punishment  more  immediately 
efficacious  were  adopted.  Thus,  in  May,  1775,  the  Massa- 
chusetts provincial  congress  recommended  to  the  commit- 
tees of  correspondence  and  selectmen  of  the  various  towns 
to  confiscate  the  arms  of  those  persons  who  were  unfriendly 
to  the  American  cause,  and  forbade  any  inhabitants  to  re- 
move from  the  province  with  their  effects,  except  by  leave 
of  the  local  committee  of  correspondence  or  the  provincial 
congress.  In  June  the  provincial  congress  directed  the 
selectmen  and  committees  of  correspondence  of  the  several 
towns  to  take  charge  of  the  effects  and  estates  of  those  per- 
sons who  had  fled  within  the  British  lines  at  Boston  or 
elsewhere,  to  improve  the  same  to  the  best  advantage,  and 
to  render  a  true  account  of  the  profits  arising  therefrom  to 
the  congress.^  The  New  Hampshire  provincial  congress  on 
June  30  sentenced  Colonel  John  Fenton  to  an  indefinite 
confinement  in  jail  for  being  "  an  enemy  to  the  liberties  of 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  644. 

'  A''.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  ix,  pp.  1240,  1266;  vol.  x,  pp.  243,  261. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  793,  1804,  1431  n. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  — g. 

America."  ^  The  Rhode  Island  General  Assembly  in  No- 
vember passed  a  law  punishing,  with  death  and  forfeiture 
of  property,  any  persons  assisting  the  British  enemy  with 
information,  provisions  or  munitions.-  In  September  the 
New  York  provincial  congress  established  a  series  of  penal- 
ties for  persons  inimical  to  -Vmerica ;  and  these  penalties  in- 
cluded imprisonment,  disarming,  fines,  and  banishment  from 
the  province,  according  to  the  enormity  of  the  offence. * 
Several  persons  were  sent  to  jail  in  October  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania committee  of  safety  for  unfriendly  correspond- 
ence with  the  enemy,  and  one  of  them  was  later  released 
under  bond  of  £500  for  good  behavior.^  The  committee  of 
Newbern,  N.  C.,  ordered  the  disarming  of  all  those  who 
had  not  signed  the  defense  association.''  In  June,  1775,  the 
secret  committee  of  the  General  Committee  at  Charlest(;n 
sentenced  two  men,  who  had  declined  the  defense  associa- 
tion, to  tar  and  feathers." 

The  radical  committees  and  organizations  in  many  of  the 
provinces  also  found  it  necessary  to  limit  or  prohibit  expor- 
tations,  although  the  non-exportation  regulation  of  the  Con- 
tinental Association  was  not  to  become  effective  until  Sep- 
tember 10.  The  prime  purpose  of  such  regulations  was  to 
distress  the  British  troops ;  a  subsidiary  object  was  to  facili- 
tate the  provisioning  of  the  American  forces.  The  Connec- 
ticut Assembly  was  the  first  to  act,  in  April,  1775,  by  plac- 
ing an  embargo  upon  the  exportation  by  water  of  cereals, 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,   vol.  ii,  pp.  6q8.  1180.  iiSt. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  1376-1377. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  573-574- 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  1815,  1822-1823. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  100. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  922-923. 


560  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

meats  and  live  cattle,  except  necessary  ship  supplies/  In 
May  the  Rhode  Island  Assembly  passed  a  similar  act."  The 
Massachusetts  provincial  congress  in  June  resolved  that  no 
fish  or  other  provision  should  be  shipped  from  the  province 
unless  the  committee  having  jurisdiction  should  decide  that 
the  victuals  were  intended  for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of 
some  New  England  province.^ 

Even  before  the  fateful  day  at  Lexington,  the  populace 
at  New  York  had  become  alarmed  at  the  exportation  of 
nails,  spades  and  other  implements  to  the  British  troops  at 
Boston,  and  at  a  mass  meeting  on  April  6  they  adopted 
resolutions  demanding  that  the  practice  stop.  Two  mer- 
chants. William  and  Henry  Ustick,  who  were  active  in  this 
traffic,  were  held  up  as  "  inveterate  foes  to  American  free- 
dom," although,  as  these  gentlemen  maintained,  they  had 
not  violated  an}'-  part  of  the  Continental  Association.*  In 
May  the  One  Hundred  forbade  the  exportation  of  provis- 
ions from  New  York  city,  and  in  August  the  provincial 
congress  applied  the  same  principle  to  shipments  from  the 
entire  province.'  The  Virginia  convention  resolved,  on  Jul}'' 
24,  to  withhold  the  exportation  of  cereals  and  other  pro- 
visions after  August  5  and  to  prevent  even  the  collection  of 
them  in  large  quantities  in  towns  or  near  navigable  streams. 
The  merchants  and  inhabitants  of  Norfolk  and  Northamp- 
ton entered  vigorous  protests;  and  when  word  arrived,  on 
A.ugust  8.  that  the  Maryland  convention  would  not  join  in 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  410,  562;  vol.  iii,  pp.  269,  1018. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  1151. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  1404.  For  subsequent  modifications  of  this  resolution, 
vide  ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  1435,  1440,  1462;  vol.  iii,  pp.  320,  362,  1440-1441. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  242-243.  282-283 :  .V.  Y.  Gaz..  Apr.  17,  24,  1775. 

*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  636-637 ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  445-447,  536-537.  More 
stringent  regulations  were  adopted  later  in  the  month.  Ibid.,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  558-559.  560,  561,  565. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  r5j 

similar  resolutions,  the  convention  rescinded  its  action/ 
However,  the  various  county  committees  endeavored  to 
keep  supplies  away  from  British  warships  in  Virginia 
waters.^  The  General  Committee  at  Charleston  resolved 
on  May  26,  that  no  rice  or  Indian  corn  should  thereafter  be 
exported  from  the  province ;  and  on  June  9  the  provincial 
congress  declared  that  this  embargo  should  continue  for 
three  months.^ 

The  conduct  of  the  fishermen  of  Nantucket  furnished  a 
knotty  problem  for  the  radicals  to  solve  and  involved  again 
the  use  of  non-exportation  prior  to  the  time  set  by  the  Con- 
tinental Association.  The  islanders  had  no  scruples  about 
profiting  by  their  exemption  from  the  New  England  Re- 
straining Act  in  respect  to  the  whale  fisheries.  Further- 
more, they  were  suspected  of  furnishing  the  British  ships 
and  troops  in  Massachusetts  with  food,  and  of  carrying  pro- 
visions to  Newfoundland  and  the  fishing  settlements.  In 
order  to  check  this  traffic,  the  Second  Continental  Congress 
voted  on  May  29,  1775,  that  no  provisions  or  necessities  of 
life  should  be  exported  to  Nantucket,  except  from  Massa- 
chusetts, and  then  only  in  sufficient  quantities  for  domestic 
consumption.*  This  proved  to  be  an  impracticable  arrange- 
ment because  of  the  difficulty  of  providing  an  adequate 
supervision.  The  Massachusetts  provincial  congress  placed 
the  regulation  of  exportation  under  charge  of  the  provincial 
committee  of  safety;  but  it  soon  became  evident  that,  not- 
withstanding their  precautions,  the  islanders  were  prepar- 
ing a  large  quantity  of  provisions  with  the  intention  of 
availing  themselves  of  their  exclusive  privilege  to  engage  in 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  102,  103.  122,  369.  372.  X/\^.  376. 

''  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  218,  655-656. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  710,  938. 

*  Journals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  70-71.  ' 


562 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


the  whale  fisheries.  On  July  7,  therefore,  the  provincial 
congress  decided  to  withhold  all  provisions  and  necessities 
from  the  island  until  the  inhabitants  showed  proof  that  the 
food  they  had  on  hand  would  be  used  in  domestic  con- 
sumption/ 

The  islanders  apparently  gave  little  heed  to  this  resolu- 
tion. They  managed  to  get  a  little  food  from  other  prov- 
inces ;  '  but  by  September  they  found  themselves  in  severe 
straits.  The  Massachusetts  "  House  of  Representatives," 
successor  of  the  provincial  congress,  being  made  cognizant 
of  this  situation,  took  steps  on  September  28  to  re-open  ex- 
portation, and  they  instructed  the  committee  of  correspond- 
ence of  the  town  of  Falmouth  to  supply  the  island  with 
enough  food  for  sustenance  of  the  inhabitants."  This 
method  of  regulation  Hkewise  failed;  *  and  on  December  11, 
1775,  the  Continental  Congress  took  the  matter  in  hand. 
The  selectmen  of  the  town  of  Sherburne  in  Nantucket  were 
instructed  to  prepare  an  estimate  of  the  provisions  and  fuel 
necessary  for  the  use  of  the  island  and  to  lay  it,  under  their 
oath  or  affirmation,  before  three  or  more  justices  of  the 
peace  of  Barnstable  County,  Mass.  The  justices  were  then 
empowered  to  grant  licenses  to  any  master  or  owner  of 
vessels  in  the  island  to  import  supplies  up  to  the  amount 
specified.^'  This  resolution  of  Congress  appears  to  have 
afforded  a  reasonably  satisfactory  solution  for  the  difficulty 
while  the  British  troops  remained  at  Boston. 

The  Second  Continental  Congress  convened  on  May  10, 
1775,  three  weeks  after  the  beginning  of  war  at  Lexington. 

1  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  420-422. 

'^  E.  g.,  ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  15,  21-22,  60. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  1444. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  p.  1331. 

5  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  420-422. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -5^ 

Similar  to  the  First  Continental  Congress  in  the  irregularity 
of  its  election,  the  problem  that  it  had  to  face  was  a  more 
complicated  one.  The  Congress  had  to  solve  on  a  national 
scale  the  problem  that  the  provincial  and  local  organizations 
had  been  trying  to  solve  within  their  smaller  jurisdictions. 
As  Robert  R.  Livingston  told  his  fellow-members  in  a 
speech  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  "'  We  are  between  hawk 
and  buzzard;  we  puzzle  ourselves  between  the  commercial 
and  warlike  opposition."  ^  This  was  indeed  the  most  seri- 
ous dilemma ;  but,  in  addition,  it  was  necessary  to  settle  cer- 
tain questions  of  interpretation  and  omission  arising  from 
the  Continental  Association  and  to  adapt  the  document 
frankly  to  the  new  war  conditions. 

Accepting  the  Lexington  affray  as  a  declaration  of  war, 
the  Congress  began  to  assume  direction  of  the  rebellion  and 
to  exercise  the  powers  of  a  de  facto  government.  In  June 
Washington  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  army 
of  the  United  Colonies,  and  rules  for  regulating  the  army 
and  navy  were  promulgated.  Many  other  plans  for  military 
operations  were  adopted  in  the  subsequent  months.  On 
July  6  a  declaration  was  issued,  which  said,  in  effect,  that 
the  attempt  of  the  British  government  to  accomplish  by 
force  of  arms  what  by  law  or  right  they  could  never  effect 
had  made  it  necessary  for  the  colonists  to  change  the  ground 
of  opposition  and  to  close  with  the  British  appeal  from 
reason  to  arms.^ 

As  the  interprovincial  organization  of  the  radicals,  the 
Congress  undertook  to  standardize  and  supplement  some  of 
the  new  functions  which  the  committees  of  observation  in 
the  several  provinces  had  assumed  of  their  own  accord.  In 
June  it  was  resolved  that  no  provisions  should  be  furnished 
the  British  army  and  navy  in  America  and  that  n(T  bills  of 

'  Adams,  J.,  Works  (Adams),  vol.  ii,  p.  461. 
^Journals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  140-153. 


564 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


exchange  of  amiy  or  navy  officers  should  be  honored/  In 
December  vessels  employed  in  transporting  British  troops 
or  carrying  supplies  for  them  were  declared  liable  to  con- 
fiscation.^ In  October  it  was  recommended  to  the  provin- 
cial organizations  to  arrest  every  person  whose  going  at 
large  might  endanger  the  liberties  of  America ;  ^  and  on 
January  2,  1776.  these  bodies  were  authorized  to  invoke  the 
aid  of  the  continental  troops  in  order  to  disarm  all  who 
spoke  or  acted  against  America,  and  to  arrest  or  place  under 
bond  the  more  dangerous  among  them.*  Later  in  January 
it  was  resolved  that  any  person  who  refused  continental 
currency  should  be  published  by  the  local  committee  or  pro- 
vincial body  as  "  an  enemy  of  his  country  "  and  be  sub- 
jected to  boycott."'  In  March  the  radical  organizations 
were  instructed  to  disarm  all  who  had  refused  to  sign  de- 
fense associations  or  who  were  notoriously  disaffected.® 

Congress  also  sought  to  encourage  widespread  activity  in 
manufacturing,  particularly  the  production  of  saltpetre,  sul- 
phur and  gunpowder."  Further  than  this,  it  was  recom- 
mended, in  March,  1776,  that  the  manufacturing  of  duck 
and  sail-cloth  and  of  steel  should  be  introduced  into  those 
provinces  where  the  processes  were  understood,  and  that  a 
society  for  the  improvement  of  agriculture,  arts,  manufac- 
tures and  commerce  should  be  established  in  every  prov- 
ince.^ 

^  Journals,  vol.  ii,  p.  78.  '  Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  437- 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  280. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  18-20.  On  January  3,  Congress  it.=elf  enforced  this 
resolution  against  the  loyalist  inhabitants  of  Queen's  County,  N.  Y. 
Ibid.,  pp.  25-27,  34,  114. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  367-368;  vol.  iv,  p.  49.  l^ide  also  ibid.,  vol.  iv.  p. 
383;  vol.  v,  pp.  475-476. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  p.  205. 

''Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  345-348,  349;  vol.  iv,  pp.  170-171. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  p.  224, 


i 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  365 

Certain  questions  which  had  arisen  from  the  omissions 
and  ambiguities  of  the  Continental  Association  also  re- 
ceived careful  consideration  at  the  hands  of  Congress.  One 
of  these  grew  out  of  the  failure  of  the  Association  to  pro- 
vide a  means  b)'  which  a  contrite  offender,  adjudged  guilty 
in  the  usual  manner,  might  be  restored  to  public  favor. 
Many  committees  had  not  waited  to  ask  the  opinion  of  Con- 
gress in  this  matter,  but  had  devised  their  own  measures. 
But  the  question  was  presented  to  Congress  through  a  peti- 
tion of  Robert  and  John  Murray,  of  New  York,  asking  that 
they  might  be  restored  "  to  their  former  situation  with  re- 
spect to  their  commercial  privileges."  In  response  to  this 
petition,  Congress  in  May,  1775,  established  a  general  regu- 
lation to  the  effect  that  the  convention  of  the  province,  in 
which  the  offence  was  committed,  should  settle  the  terms 
upon  which  a  repentant  offender  might  receive  the  forgive- 
ness of  the  public.^ 

On  July  4  Congress  added  the  New  England  Restrain- 
ing Act  and  the  General  Restraining  Act  to  the  list  of  those 
laws  whose  repeal  was  aimed  at  by  the  Continental  Associa- 
tion.^ To  settle  all  doubts  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  words,. 
"  Great  Britain  "  and  "  West  Indies/'  as  used  in  the  Asso- 
ciation, it  was  declared  in  August  that  the  former  term  in- 
cluded all  exportation  to  and  importation  from  the  islands 
of  Jersey,  Guernsey,  Sark,  Alderney  and  Man,  and  every 
European  island  and  settlement  within  the  British  domin- 
ions ;  and  that  the  latter  term  comprehended  exportation  to 
all  the  West  India  islands,  British  and  foreign,  and  to  the 
Summer  Islands.  Bahamas.   Berbicia,  Surinam,  and  every 

1  Journals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  49,  53.  67.  The  boycott  against  the  Murrays  was 
removed  by  action  of  the  New  Jersey  congress  on  May  31  and  of  the 
New  York  congress  on  June  10.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  689-690,. 
1284,  1291. 

'  Journals,  vol.  ii,  p.  125. 


^66  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

island  and  settlement  between  the  latitude  of  southern 
Georgia  and  the  equator/  Congress  was  called  upon  for 
a  further  interpretation  of  the  non-importation  regulation 
when  a  vessel  arrived  from  London  with  the  books  and 
household  furniture  of  Dr.  Franklin.  A  resolution  was 
adopted  that  such  an  importation  was  not  comprehended 
within  the  meaning  of  Article  i  and  should  be  landed.' 

The  most  important  action  taken  by  Congress  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Association  was  the  series  of  resolutions  per- 
taining to  the  non-exportation  regulation.  One  of  these 
resolutions  terminated  the  painful  controversy  which  had 
grown  out  of  the  privileged  position  enjoyed  by  the  rice 
planters  in  the  Association.  The  method  of  solution  had 
been  foreshadowed  by  the  embargo  placed  upon  rice  by  the 
General  Committee  at  Charleston  in  May  and  by  the  South 
Carolina  congress  in  June.^  Congress  took  no  action  in  the 
matter  until  November  i,  although  the  general  non-expor- 
tation regulation  had  been  in  effect  since  the  tenth  of  Sep- 
tember :  and  then  it  was  resolved :  "  That  no  Rice  be  ex- 
ported under  the  exception  contained  in  the  fourth  article 
of  the  Association,  from  any  of  the  United  Colonies  to 
Great  Britain,  Ireland  or  the  Islands  of  Jersey,  Guernsey, 
Sark.  Alderney  or  Man,  or  any  other  European  island  or 
settlement  within  the  British  Dominions."  * 
vQn  July  15,  1775,  Congress  authorized  for  a  period  of 
nine  months  the  clandestine  importation  of  munitions  in 
return  for  American  produce,  "  the  non-exportation  agree- 
ment notwithstanding."  ''    This  resolution,  which  was  with- 

*  Journals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  238-239. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  247. 

'4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  710.  938. 

*  Journals,  vol.  iii,  jjp.  314-315. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.   184-185;   vol.  iii,  p.  306.     The   regulation  of  this 
traffic  was  left  to  the  committees  in  the  several  provinces.     On  Sept.  19, 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


567 


held  from  the  newspapers  until  October  26,  was  not  alto- 
gether clear  in  its  meaning.  But  whether  or  not  a  relaxing 
of  tlie  non-importation  regulation  was  intended,  it  clearly 
permitted  a  limited  exportation  to  Great  Britain  and  the 
West  Indies,  even  after  the  date  September  10/  and  sanc- 
tione;d  a  smuggling  traffic  in  munitions  with  foreign  coun- 
triesA  Incidentally  it  afforded  some  relief  to  the  merchants, 
shipowners  and  sailors,  who  were  beginning  to  suffer  from 
the  straitening  effects  of  the  non-importation."  Without 
withdrawing  the  resolution  of  July  15,  which  applied  pri- 
marily to  shipments  undertaken  upon  private  initiative. 
Congress,  on  October  26,  recommended  to  the  provincial 
organizations  to  export  to  the  foreign  West  Indies,  at  the 
expense  of  the  province,  provisions  and  other  produce  in  re- 
turn for  munitions.  The  secret  committee  of  Congress  was 
empowered  to  do  the  same  on  the  continental  account,  on 
November  8.'^  These  later  resolutions  also  contravened  the 
non-exportation  provisions  of  the  Association.  .On  January 
3,  1776,  the  breach  in  the  Association  was  made  larger  by 
a  blanket  instruction  of  Congress  to  the  secret  committee 
to  "  pursue  the  most  effectual  measures  for  importing " 
drygoods    and   certain    other   merchandise   into   America.* 

Congress  established  a  secret  committee  to  look  after  the  importation 
of  munitions  for  continental  military  purposes.  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  253; 
vol.  iii,  p.  280;  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  460-461. 

^  E.  g.,  vide  Journals,  vol.  iv,  pp.  172-173,  183. 

'  Dyer,  of  Connecticut,  complained  in  September  that  there  were  not 
ten  men  in  Connecticut  who  were  worth  as  much  money  as  the  Phila- 
delphia firm  of  Willing  &  Morris  would  make  out  of  a  contract  with 
Congress  for  the  importation  of  powder.  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  448-449- 

^Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  308,  315.  33^',  vol.  iv,  p.  414.  Certain  classes  of 
live  stock  were  excepted  in  each  instance.  For  the  practice  of  Congress 
in  special  cases,  vide  ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  408-409,  438-439;  vol.  iv,  pp.  95-96. 
108,  120,  176,  193. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  24-25. 


-68  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S-1776 

This  resolution  practically  annulled  both  the  non-importa- 
tion and  non-exportation  regulations  of  the  Association^  so 
far  as  the  powers  of  the  secret  committee  were  concerned.  \ 

Meantime,,  Congress  had  taken  some  steps  for  re-opeTiing 
trade  with  the  British  West  Indies,  contrary  to  the  spirit 
and  wording  of  the  Continental  Association.  Depending 
upon  the  continental  provinces  for  their  food  supply,  the 
British  residents  in  those  islands  feared  a  servile  insurrec- 
tion when  the  non-exportation  regulation  should  become 
effective.  In  July,  1775.  the  Bermuda  Assembly  passed  a 
law  placing  an  embargo  upon  the  shipping  of  provisions 
from  the  island.^  Leading  inhabitants  dispatched  a  vessel 
to  Philadelphia  to  lay  their  case  before  the  Continental 
Congress.  When  that  body  took  the  matter  under  consid- 
eration, in  November,  1775,  the  continent  was  already  be- 
ginning to  feel  the  lack  of  salt  and  was  in  bad  need  of  war 
mimitions;  and  therefore  Congress  decided  that,  as  ''the 
inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Bermuda  appear  friendly  to 
the  cause  of  America,"  enough  food  should  be  sent  them 
from  time  to  time  as  might  be  necessary  for  their  subsist- 
ence and  home  consumption,  upon  condition  that  payment 
should  be  made  in  salt  and  munitions.^  The  distress  of  the 
people  of  the  island  of  New  Providence  was  alleviated  tem- 
porarily when  Congress  permitted  the  exportation  of  one 
hundred  bushels  of  flour,  on  November  29,  in  return  for 
muskets.' 

^  N.  y.  Journ.,  July  27,  1775. 

■■'  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  262-;i64.  The  annual  exportation  to  Bermuda 
was  fixed  at  72,000  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  2,000  barrels  of  bread  or 
flour,  1,000  barrels  of  beef  or  pork,  2,100  bushels  of  peas  or  beans,  and 
300  tierces  of  rice. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  389-390.  The  Connecticut  Gazette,  Feb.  16.  1776, 
reported  that  the  non-exportation  was  beginning  to  be  severely  felt  in 
the  West  Indies,  where  the  most  ordinary  beef  sold  for  seven  or  eight 
pounds  per  barrel,  common  flour  at  six  pounds  currency  per  barrel. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -(yg 

Congress  was  confronted  with  a  practical  problem  of 
serious  import  by  the  action  of  Parhament,  in  April.  1775, 
in  exempting  four  colonies  from  the  provisions  of  the  Gen- 
eral Restraining  Act.  The  radical  organizations  in  these 
colonies  had  taken  active  steps  to  prevent  any  advantage  be- 
ing taken  of  the  parliamentary  exemption.  But  as  the  need 
for  war  supplies  became  greater,  Congress  began  to  con- 
sider the  practicability  of  making  the  United  Colonies  the 
beneficiaries  of  these  privileged  trade-channels.  Through- 
out October  the  matter  was  under  active  consideration  by 
Congress.^  Willing  of  Pennsylvania  argued:  "Shall  we 
act  like  the  dog  in  the  manger — not  suffer  New  York  and 
the  lower  counties  and  North  Carolina  to  export  because  we 
can't?  We  may  get  salt  and  ammunition  by  those  ports." 
Johnson  of  Maryland  and  Jay  of  New  York  spoke  to  the 
same  purpose.  Lee  of  Virginia  believed  that  for  the  ex- 
empted colonies  to  trade  would  be  exactly  answering  the 
purpose  of  the  British  administration,  for  "  jealousies  and 
dissensions  will  arise,  and  disunion  and  division.  We  shall 
become  a  rope  of  sand."  Gadsden  of  South  Carolina, 
Wythe  of  Virginia  and  Chase  of  Maryland  agreed.  Chase 
adding:  "A  few  weeks  will  put  us  all  on  a  footing;  New 
York  &c  are  now  all  in  rebellion,  as  the  ministry  call  it,  as 
much  as  Massachusetts  Bay."  John  Rutledge  of  South 
Carolina  chided  the  opposition  for  wanting  to  break  the 

and  that  little  was  to  be  had  at  any  price.  The  islanders  were  "  under 
terrible  Apprehensions  "  of  the  effect  of  reduced  rations  upon  the  negro 
slaves.  On  October  4,  this  sheet  reported  further  that  an  insurrection 
had  broken  out  among  the  Jamaica  negroes  and  that  some  merchant 
vessels,  just  arrived  in  Connecticut,  had  been  detained  because  of  a 
food  embargo  there  and  had  sailed  finally  with  a  short  allowance  of 
provisions. 

•Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii.  pp.  45^-457.  469-484;  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp. 
276,  280.  283,  286,  287,  291-292,  301-302.  307,  312.  The  exempted  prov- 
inces were  New  York.  Delaware.  North  Carolina  and  Georgia. 


570 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  176S-1776 


Association  so  soon  and  reminded  the  members,  with  some 
bitterness,  that  "  if  we  had  abided  by  a  former  non-impor- 
tation, we  should  have  had  redress."  Finally,  on  Novem- 
ber I,  Congress  came  to  a  decision.  It  was  resolved  that 
no  persons  in  the  four  privileged  provinces  should  apply  at 
the  custom  houses  for  clearance  papers ;  and  the  thanks  of 
Congress  was  voted  for  their  self-denial  in  the  past.^ 

The  tenth  of  September,  1775,  was  the  date  set  by  the 
Continental  Association  for  the  prohibition  of  exportation 
to  Great  Britain.  Ireland  and  the  West  Indies ;  and  for 
months  the  merchants  had  been  looking  forward  with  dread 
to  the  event.  The  non-importation  had  continued  to  be 
effectively  enforced  —  the  British  warships  proving  of  un- 
intentional service  after  July  in  their  efforts  to  prevent  the 
smuggling  of  tea,  trade  with  the  foreign  West  Indies,  etc., 
under  the  provisions  of  the  General  Restraining  Act — and 
there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  non-exportation 
regulation  would  be  equally  well  executed,  except  of  course 
in  such  cases  as  Congress  had  chosen  to  make  exceptions. 
Throughout  the  spring  and  summer  of  1775  the  merchants 
of  the  North  and  the  planters  of  the  South  had  increased 
their  shipments  to  Great  Britain  and  the  West  Indies  in 
order  to  provide  against  the  approaching  abstention.  Com- 
parative figures  for  the  years  1774  and  1775  show  that  at 
New  York  the  value  of  exports  to  England  increased  from 
£80,008  to  £187,018;  at  Philadelphia,  from  £69,611  to 
£175,962;  in  Mar}4and  and  Virginia,  from  £612,030  to 
£758,356;  in  the  Carolinas,  from  £432,302  to  £579,549; 
and  in  Georgia,  from  £67,647  to  £103,477;  and  that  even  in 
f  New  England  there  was  a  slight  increase  from  £112,248  to 
£116,588."  For  the  colonies  as  a  whole  there  was  an  in- 
crease of  nearly  forty  per  cent. 

'  Journals,  vol.  iii,  p.  314. 

*  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Com.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  564,  585- 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  c^i 

/ 

/  When  news  of  the  Lexington  affair  electrified  the  conti- 
nent, it  was  widely  rumored  that  Congress  would  move  for- 
ward the  date  of  the  non-exportation.  In  the  early  days  of 
May,  1775,  owners  of  vessels  at  Philadelphia  got  them  out 
of  the  harbor  as  fast  as  they  could ;  the  millers  hurried  their 
flour  to  market,  some  of  them  near  the  city  selling  wheat  out 
of  their  mills  without  grinding.  >  Vessels  were  not  to  be  had 
at  any  price;  flour  advanced  fr6m  13s.  to  14s.  6d.^  Thomas 
Mumford,  an  exporter  of  horses  at  Groton,  Conn.,  wrote 
to  his  brother-in-law,  Silas  Deane,  a  member  of  Congress, 
for  definite  information  as  to  the  possibility  of  an  earlier 
non-exportation,  pointing  out  that  he  had  several  vessels 
which  he  was  thinking  of  fitting  out.  Deane  informed  his 
wife  in  a  letter  a  few  weeks  later  that  it  was  still  uncertain 
what  action  Congress  would  take,  but  he  added :  "  Tell  my 
brother  to  get  his  vessel  away  as  quick  as  possible,  some- 
where or  other,  if  he  sends  her  at  all ;  this  is  what  the 
merchts  are  doing  here."  - 
/   Such  precautions  proved  unnecessary,  as  Congress  did 

/not  tamper  with  the  date  originally  set  for  non-exportation. 

V  Considerable  public  sentiment,  however,  was  aroused  by  the 
enterprise  of  merchants,  in  several  parts  of  the  continent,  in 
collecting  great  quantities  of  flaxseed  in  the  last  weeks  of 
open  commerce  for  exportation  to  Ireland.  While  such 
exportation  did  not  contravene  the  terms  of  the  Association, 
it  was  felt  that  it  was  nevertheless  injurious  to  the  Amer- 
ican cause  and  thus  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Association? 
When  New  York  merchants  sent  agents  into  Connecticut  to 
buy  up  flaxseed  for  this  purpose,  the  committees  at  New 
Haven,  Milford.  Fairfield  and  other  places  sternly  warned 
the  inhabitants  against  dealing  with  them.'    On  August  12, 

1  Clifford,  Correspondence  {L.  C.  Mss.).  vol.  xxix.  letters  of  May  2, 
6,  30,  1775- 
*  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  263,  276. 
»  Conn.  Journ.,  Aug.  16,  23,  177$;  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Aug.  24. 


-72  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

fourteen  business  houses  of  New  York  city  applied  to  the 
New  York  provincial  congress  for  a  definition  of  their 
rights  in  shipping  flaxseed;  and  that  body  responded  that, 
since  the  Continental  Congress  had  left  the  provision  un- 
changed, exportation  might  continue  until  September  10.^ 
Nevertheless  the  New  York  Journal  announced,  five  days 
after  this  action,  that  "  some  Merchants  of  this  City,  who 
had  chartered  a  Vessel  to  load  her  with  Flax  Seed  for  Ire- 
land, have  altered  her  Voyage,  rather  than  give  Dissatis- 
faction to  our  Fellow  Citizens."  When  a  town  meeting  at 
Providence,  R.  I.,  learned  on  September  7  that  a  large 
quantity  of  flaxseed  was  about  to  be  exported  from  the 
town,  they  at  once  placed  a  ban  on  its  shipment.^ 

There  was  a  great  bustle  at  Philadelphia  in  the  last  week 
of  open  trade;  and  no  doubt  the  scene  there  was  paralleled 
in  many  other  ports  of  the  continent.  Produce  of  all  sorts 
was  brought  to  town  and  in  such  quantities  that  not  enough 
vessels  could  be  found  to  carry  it  off.  On  the  very  last  day, 
fifty-two  ships  sailed  from  port,  leaving  hardly  a  vessel  be- 
hind. Several  of  these  ships  had  arrived  and  taken  a  cargo 
in  forty-eight  hours.  ^ 

/With  the  advent  of  non-exportation,  conditions  were  far 
different  from  those  anticipated  by  the  f ramers  of  the  Con- 
tinental Association.  Military  necessity,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  taken  away  from  the  non-exportation  regulation  its 
primary  raison  d'etre,  i.  e.  a  self-denying  ordinance  for  pur- 
poses of  commercial  coercion,  and  had  converted  it  very 
largely  into  a  mechanism  for  procuring  military  supplies^ 
The  work  of  enforcing  the  non-exportation  regulation  in 
cases  where  it  applied  was  zealously  undertaken  by  the  rad- 

^  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  96,  529. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  661-662. 

^  Pa.  Journ.,   Sept.    13,   1775;    Clifford,   Corresp.,   vol.  xxix,   Sept.  8; 
Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  ii,  p.  305. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -73 

ical  committees,  notwithstanding  that  they  were  occupied 
with  a  multitude  of  other  duties.  The  presence  of  British 
warships  in  American  waters,  pursuant  to  the  General  Re- 
straining Act,  was  a  mild  deterrent  to  American  ventures 
to  the  foreign  West  Indies  no  doubt,  and  thus  assisted  the 
observance  of  the  non-exportation.  The  absolute  prohibi- 
tion of  American  trade,  enacted  by  Parliament  in  December. 
1775,  imposed  a  heavier  burden  on  the  British  navy,  and, 
Avhen  the  prohibition  became  effective  in  March,  1776, 
served  further  to  discourage  xAjnerican  exportations.  How- 
ever, smuggling  past  the  British  vessels  off  the  coast  pre- 
sented no  insurmountable  difficulties;  and  the  real  burden 
of  enforcing  the  regulation  fell  upon  the  local  committees. 

One  of  the  first  questions  that  arose  was  whether  vessels 
that  had,  for  some  legitimate  reason,  been  delayed  in  their 
departure  should  be  permitted  to  sail  after  September  10  to 
any  of  the  forbidden  places.  The  committee  of  safety  at 
Wilmington,  N.  C,  had  warned  the  merchants  there  in  ad- 
vance that  their  vessels  could  not  depart  after  the  tenth  on 
the  excuse  that  their  cargoes  were  not  yet  completely  laden. ^ 
The  Continental  Congress  permitted  a  vessel  to  sail  that 
had  been  much  damaged  in  a  storm  on  her  outward  voyage 
and  had  been  forced  to  return  to  Norfolk  for  refitting.* 
But  when  a  mercantile  house  asked  permission  to  charter  a 
vessel  to  export  a  cargo  of  wheat  after  the  tenth,  upon  the 
plea  that  the  one  that  they  had  engaged  had  foundered  in  a 
storm,  the  petition  was  tabled.' 

The  various  privileged  exportations,  under  license  of  the 
Continental  Congress  or  of  provincial  organizations,  com- 

^  A''.  C.  Col.  Recs.,  vol.  x,  p.  151.  The  provincial  convention  confirmed 
this  action.    Ibid.,  p.  183. 

^Journals,  vol.  ii,  p.  246.  Similar  action  was  taken  in  some  other 
cases.    Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  354-335- 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  264. 


574 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


plicated  the  problem  of  enforcement  for  the  committees. 
Thus,  in  February,  1776,  a  representation  was  made  to 
Congress  by  the  Philadelphia  committee  that  vessels  were 
loading  with  produce  for  Great  Britain,  Ireland  and  the 
British  West  Indies.  Congress  appointed  a  committee  to 
examine  into  the  circumstances  and  then  permitted  them  to 
sail  as  being  within  the  terms  of  the  congressional  resolu- 
tion of  July  15/ 

Recorded  instances  of  enforcement  are  not  many.  The 
Newcastle,  Del.,  committee  compelled  the  Peace  and  Plenty, 
which  had  arrived  from  Belfast  on  September  8,  to  make 
her  return  voyage  in  ballast.'  Arthur  Upshur,  of  Accomack 
County,  Va.,  was  held  up  to  the  public  by  the  coimty  com- 
mittee for  having  sent  a  cargo  of  grain  to  the  West  Indies 
after  the  tenth.  ^  The  Georgians  came  under  the  criticism 
of  the  South  Carolina  council  of  safety  for  their  apparent 
laxness  in  enforcing  non-exportation ;  *  nevertheless,  it  is  a 
matter  of  record  that  more  than  live  thousand  barrels  of 
rice,  which  Governor  Wright  had  prepared  for  exportation 
in  1775,  were  withheld  from  shipment  through  their  zeal.' 

Very  illuminating  was  the  statement,  made  by  Robert 
Haliday,  customs  collector  at  Charleston.  S.  C,  that  by  the 
non-importation  regulation  the  emoluments  of  his  office  had 
been  greatly  reduced,  and  by  the  non-exportation  regulation 
"  entirely  annihilated."  "  Thomas  Clifford,  the  Philadel- 
phia merchant,  wrote  on  October  25,  1775,  that  he  was  lay- 
ing up  his  ships  as  fast  as  they  came  in,  "  there  being  no 

^  Journals,  vol.  iv,  pp.  172-173,  183. 

-  Pa.  Journ.,  Sept.  27,  1775;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  726. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  935;  Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford),  vol.  ii,  pp.  118-119. 

*  White,  Ga.  Hist.  Colls.,  pp.  86-87;   Ga.  Rev.  Rccs.,  vol.  i,  pp.  89, 
108,  111-112. 

^Loyalist  Claims  Transcripts,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  91. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  Iv,  pp.  359-360. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -nc 

Prospect  of  Employ  abroad  worth  sending  them  to  seek  in 
ballast,"  that  most  people  were  doing  the  same  thing,  and 
that  ■'  this  Port  and  we  believe  all  the  others  along  the  Con- 
tinent have  been  strictly  kept  shut  from  the  Exportation  of 
Produce  agreeable  to  the  Congress  Resolves."  ^  Indeed, 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  non-exportation  regu- 
lation was  otherwise  than  well  kept. 

/  For  a  period  of  four  months,  beginning  November  i, 
^^7S,  the  partial  non-exportation  established  by  the  Conti- 
nental Association,  was  converted  into  a  total  n(m-exporta- 
tion  by  resolution  of  the  Continental  Congress.  \  This  de- 
cision was  the  outcome  of  warm  debates  in  Congress  and 
was  determined  upon  in  face  of  a  determined  effort  to 
secure  the  exemption  of  tobacco  and  lumber  from  its  terms 
and  in  spite  of  Robert  R.  Livingston's  insistence  that  the 
non-exportation  policy  be  abandoned  instead  of  extended." 
Edward  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina  advocated  the  resolu- 
tion that  passed  as  the  only  absolutely  certain  way  of  keep- 
ing exports  from  British  ports  and  as  the  most  effective  way 
to  promote  domestic  manufacturing.  The  purpose  animat- 
ing the  majority  was  probably  the  desire  to  prevent  food 
supplies  from  reaching  the  enemy  through  capture  by  the 
British  warships  off  the  coast.^  The  resolution  of  Novem- 
ber I  provided  that  no  produce  of  the  United  Colonies 
should  be  exported  until  March  i,  excepting  only  licensed 
shipments  for  military  supplies  or  for  any  other  purpose 
designated  by  Congress.* 

'  Correspondence,  vol.  xxix,  Oct.  2S,  ^77i- 
'  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  453-456.  483-484. 
^  Cf.  Journals,  vol.  ii.  p.  201. 
■*  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  314. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Transformation  of  the  Association   (Continued) 

The  early  months  of  1776  witnessed  further  notable 
tnodifications  of  the  Continental  Association.  /The  four 
months  of  total  non-exportation  had  the  effect  of  aggravat- 
ing the  distresses  of  the  mercantile  and  agrarian  interests 
dependent  upon  the  export  trade  for  profit;  it  also  gave 
momentum  and  direction  to  the  sentiment,  that  had  long 
been  entertained  by  radicals  of  the  doctrinaire  school,  for 
an  entire  freedom  of  trade  with  the  nations  of  the  world.^' 
As  early  as  July  21,  1775,  the  committee  of  the  Continental 
Congress  appointed  to  devise  ways  and  means  of  protecting 
colonial  commerce  had  submitted  a  report  to  the  effect  that 
all  ports  in  the  United  Colonies  should  on  January  20,  1776, 
be  declared  thenceforth  "  open  to  the  ships  of  every  state 
in  Europe  that  will  admit  our  commerce  and  protect  it."  ^ 
The  series  of  resolutions,  the  first  of  which  was  passed  on 
July  15,  had  sanctioned  smuggling  with  foreign  countries 
for  the  purpose  of  procuring  munitions ;  the  committee's 
proposition  was  far  more  comprehensive  and  revolutionary, 
nothing  less  than  that  the  acts  of  trade  and  the  famous 
navigation  act  should  be  repudiated  and  that  trade  should 
be  opened  with  foreign  nations  in  foreign  or  domestic  ves- 
sels. The  committee's  report  was  postponed  from  time  to 
time  for  further  consideration ;  but  in  every  debate  on  trade 

^Journals  Cont.  Cong.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  200-201.     It  would  appear  that  reso- 
lutions covering  this  matter  were  submitted  by  both  Dr.  Franklin  and 
Richard  Henry  Lee. 
576 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  577 

conditions  from  that  time  forward,  allusion  was  almost  in- 
variably made  to  the  proposal  as  a  desirable  or  unacceptable 
or  desperate  alternative. 

On  August  26,  1775.  a  member  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress hazarded  the  opinion  in  a  private  letter  that  in  the 
course  of  the  coming  winter  Congress  would  adopt  the 
measure,  adding:  "  Whether  that  will  not  be  one  means  of 
dissolving  our  connections  entirely  with  Great  Britain,  I 
shall  leave  to  wiser  heads  to  determine."  ^  During  the 
month  of  October  the  matter  came  up  again  for  active  dis- 
cussion in  Congress;  but  when  a  decision  was  reached  to 
establish  a  general  non-exportation  until  March  i,  1776,  in- 
terest again  waned,  and  it  was  not  until  it  became  necessary 
to  determine  what  the  status  of  trade  should  be  after  that 
date  that  the  discussion  was  renewed,  in  the  weeks  after 
Christmas  Day,  1775. 

The  chief  opposition  to  opening  trade  with  the  world 
came  from  the  members  who  wished  to  safeguard  such 
American  shipping  as  still  remained  and  from  those  mem- 
bers who  saw  in  the  measure  a  virtual  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence.* Willing  of  Philadelphia,  shipowner  as  well  as 
exporter,  emphasized  the  fact  that  the  profits  of  carrying 
would  go  to  foreigners.  "  Carriage  is  an  amazing  revenue," 
he  declared.  "  Holland  and  England  have  derived  their 
maritime  power  from  their  carriage."  Likewise,  Johnson 
of  Maryland  pointed  out  shrewdly  that  the  measure,  while 
injuring  the  merchant  and  shipbuilder,  would  leave  the  far- 
mer unscathed.  "  The  grower,  the  farmer,  gets  the  same, 
let  who  will  be  the  exporter,"  he  declared,  "  but  the  com- 
munity does  not.  The  shipwright,  rope-maker,  hemp- 
grower,  all  shipbuilders,  the  profits  of  the  merchant,  are  all 

'  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  435-436. 

*The  October  debates  are  summarized  in  Adams,  J.,  IVorks  (Adams), 
vol.  ij,  pp.  452-457.  469-483- 


-yS  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

lost,  if  foreigners  are  our  sole  carriers,  as  well  as  seamen." 
Chase  of  Maryland  asserted  that  he  had  not  absolutely 
abandoned  all  hope  of  reconciliation,  and  until  that  time 
came  he  would  oppose  a  free  trade  with  foreign  nations. 
Zubly  of  Georgia  declared  that  there  was  no  assurance  that 
the  world  would  trade  with  the  Americans  and  the  measure 
gave  the  appearance  of  a  design  to  separate  from  England. 
The  chief  speakers  on  the  other  side  were  Lee  and  Wythe 
of  Virginia,  Gadsden  of  South  Carolina,  and  the  Adamses 
of  Massachusetts.  The  point  that  they  stressed  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  discussion  was  that,  lacking  a  navy,  the  colo- 
nists were  in  danger  of  being  cut  off  from  the  world  by  the 
British  warships,  whereas  foreign  nations  would  come  in 
and  protect  their  own  vessels  engaged  in  American  trade.  ^ 
On  January  20,  1776,  the  Virginia  delegates  were  instructed 
by  the  Virginia  provincial  convention  to  use  their  endeavors 
to  have  such  a  measure  adopted."  It  soon  became  apparent 
in  Congress  that  the  whole  matter  was  intimately  related  to 
the  question  of  political  independence.  xA.s  Sherman  of 
Connecticut  asserted  on  February  16:  "A  treaty  with  a 
foreign  power  is  necessary,  before  we  open  our  trade,  to 
protect  it;"  and  Wythe  completed  the  thought  when  he 
said  that,  to  accomplish  this,  "  we  must  declare  ourselves  a 
free  people."  ^  John  Adams  wrote  later  in  his  autobiog- 
raphy :  "  This  measure  of  opening  the  ports,  &c,  labored 
exceedingly  because  it  was  considered  a  bold  step  to  inde- 
pendence. Indeed,  I  urged  it  expressly  with  that  view,  and 
as  connected  with  the  institution  of  government  in  all  the 
States,  and  a  declaration  of  national  independence. '  The 
party  against  me  had  an  art  and  influence  as  yet  to  evade,. 

'  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  453,  454.  45^,  485-486. 
'  Dixon  &  Hunter's  Va.  Gas.,  Apr.  13,  1776. 
*  Adams.  J.,  IVorks,  vol.  ii,  pp.  485-486. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -yg 

retard,  and  delay  every  motion  that  we  made.  Many  mo- 
tions were  made  and  argued  at  great  length,  and  with  great 
spirit  on  both  sides,  which  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  Jour- 
nals." ' 

^/jQn  March  i  the  period  of  total  non-exportation  expired, 
and  the  partial  non-exportation  that  had  subsisted  prior  to 
November,  1775,  became  effective  again.  In  the  weeks  im- 
mediately following,  it  became  evident  that  the  merchants' 
stocks,  acquired  in  the  da}^s  before  the  non-importation 
regulation,  were  approaching  depletion.  There  was  a  grow- 
ing scarcity  of  goods,  which  exceedingly  distressed  the  poor 
and,  in  view  of  the  inadequate  supply  of  domestic  manu- 
factures, made  imperative  the  opening  of  trade  with  foreign 
nations.  It  was  argued  also  that  such  a  freedom  of  com- 
merce would  attract  specie  to  the  colonies  and  serve  to  check 
the  depreciation  of  the  continental  currency/  On  April  2 
the  Philadelphia  committee  of  inspection  was  asked  to 
bring  these  facts  to  the  attention  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, in  an  address  from  the  Committee  of  Privates  of  the 
local  Military  Association,  signed  by  the  retailer,  William 
Adcock,  as  president." 

l^n  added  incentive  to  the  adoption  of  drastic  measures 
of  relief  was  the  news,  that  had  arrived  at  Philadelphia  on 
February  26,  that  Parliament  had  enacted  that  after  Jan- 
uary I.  1776,  all  American  vessels  found  on  the  coast  of 
the  British  Isles  were  to  be  seized  and  confiscated ;  all  Amer- 
ican vessels  sailing  into  and  out  of  American  ports  after 
March  i  were  to  be  seized  and  confiscated :  and  all  foreign 
vessels  trading  to  America  after  June  i  were  to  be  seized. 
The  colonies  were  to  be  isolated  from  the  world,  save  such 
districts  as  would  make  submission.^  'On  the  day  following 

'  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  29. 

'  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  Apr.  4.  1776. 

•'  16  George  III,  c.  5.  „i 


^8o  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  arrival  of  the  news  a  Maryland  member  of  Congress, 
who  had  often  reprobated  the  idea  of  independence  both  in 
public  and  private,  wrote :  "  What  measures  Congress  may- 
pursue  in  consequence  of  this  act,  I  know  not.  With  me. 
every  idea  of  reconciliation  is  precluded  by  the  conduct  of 
Great  Britain ;  and  the  only  alternative,  absolute  slavery  or 
independency."  ^ 

The  public  prints  were  meantime  urging  the  opening  of 
commerce  as  a  measure  conditioned  by  a  declaration  of  in- 
dependence.^ But  Congress,  fearing  the  potency  of  an  ill- 
timed  phrase,  preferred  to  do  the  seemingly  illogical  thing. 
C  On  April  6,  without  allusion  to  political  independence,  the 
fateful  step  was  takeny  It  was  then  provided  that  any 
goods  and  w^ares,  except  staves  and  empty  casks  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  might  be  exported  from  the  United  Colo- 
nies, in  colonial  or  foreign  vessels,  to  any  parts  of  the  world 
not  under  dominion  of  Great  Britain;  and  that  any  goods 
and  merchandise  might  be  imported  into  the  United  Colo- 
nies in  like  fashion,  except  articles  produced  in  or  shipped 
from  British  possessions.  East  India  tea,  and  slaves.  It 
was  further  provided  that  all  merchandise  and  wares  im- 
ported into  the  United  Colonies  directly  or  indirectly  from 
Great  Britain  or  Ireland  contrary  to  the  regulations  of  Con- 
gress should  be  forfeited  and  disposed  of  under  rules  made 
by  the  several  assemblies." 

r.\fter  this  event  a  declaration  of  political  independence, 
however  great  its  sentimental  importance,  was  a  mere  for- 
mality. The  Adamses,  for  example,  appreciated  this  fully 
and  it  gave  them  good  occasion  for  exultation.  Not  only 
has  Congress  raised  armies  and  a  navy,  fought  battles  and 

'Robert  Alexander;  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  1507-1508. 
^ Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  470-473,  527-530,  920-922,  1141-1144;  vol.  v,  pp.  225- 
227,  860-862,  918-919,  921-926. 
'  Journals,  vol.  iv,  pp.  257-259. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -gi 

commissioned  privateers  against  the  British,  wrote  Sam 
Adams  to  a  congenial  spirit,  but  now  we  have  "  torn  into 
Shivers  their  Acts  of  Trade,  by  allowing  Commerce  subject 
to  Regulations  to  be  made  by  our  selves  with  the  People  o 
all  Countries  but  such  as  are  Subjects  of  the  British  King. 


,?^ 


The  nullification  of  the  acts  of  trade  and  navigation  was 
followed  by  the  introduction  of  two  other  important  changes 
in  the  Continental  Association,  one  relating  to  the  provision 
for  the  non-consumption  of  tea,  the  other  dealing  with  the 
regulation  of  prices.  Both  changes  represented  concessions 
to  the  merchants  who  had  not  yet  detached  themselves  from 
the  radical  cause.  With  reference  to  the  first,  it  should  be 
recalled  that  Article  iii  had  provided  for  the  total  disuse  of 
tea,  smuggled  as  well  as  dutied,  after  March  i,  1775.  This 
prohibition  expressed  a  real  protest  against  tea  drinking  on 
hygienic  grounds,  but  it  had  obtained  its  widest  support  be- 
cause of  the  impracticability  of  distinguishing  between  Eng- 
Hsh  dutied  tea  and  Dutch  undutied  tea  and  because  of  the 
desire  to  refute  the  charge  that  the  tea  smugglers  had  insti- 
gated the  uprising  against  British  measures. 

In  the  spring  months  of  1775  little  difficulty  had  been 
experienced  by  the  committees  of  observation  in  enforcing 
the  prohibition ;  but  by  midsummer,  cases  of  violation  began 
to  become  numerous.  Thus,  the  committee  at  Providence, 
R.  I.,  forced  the  recantation  of  the  tea  dealer,  Nathan 
Angell,  in  October  and  seized  such  of  his  stock  as  remained 
unsold ;  but  they  admitted  that  they  had  reason  to  suspect, 
from  the  frequent  complaints  of  country  people,  that  some 
dealers  in  Providence  still  continued  the  practice.'  It  was 
openly  asserted  in  Congress  in  September  that  ninety-nine 

*To  Joseph  Hawley,  Apr.  15,  1776;  Adams,  S.,  IVnlings  (Gushing), 
vol.  iii,  pp.  279-280. 
*  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  975-976. 


582 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  ±763-1776 


out  of  one  hundred  in  New  York  drank  tea,  although  this 
was  obviously  an  exaggeration/  A  persistent  tea  seller  at 
Reading,  Pa.,  was  tarred  and  feathered  and  ridden  6n  a 
horse  with  his  face  to  the  tail,  *'  to  the  great  diversion  of  the 
inhabitants  who,  I  believe,  hardly  ever  beheld  a  more  ridic- 
ulous figure."  ^ 

The  truth  was,  as  the  Continental  Congress  was  at  length 
forced  to  admit,  that  the  period  allowed  by  the  Continental 
Association  for  the  consumption  of  tea,  which  was  then  in 
stock,  was  too  short,  "  whereby  many  zealous  friends  to  the 
American  cause,  who  had  imported  large  quantities  of  that 
commodity,  with  design  not  merely  to  advance  their  for- 
tunes, but  to  counteract  the  plan  then  pursued  by  the  min- 
istry and  India  company  to  introduce  and  sell  in  these  colo- 
nies tea  subject  to  duty,  are  likely  to  become  great  suffer- 
ers; the  greater  part  of  the  estates  of  many  of  them  being 
vested  in  that  article,  and  they,  by  that  means,  rendered  in- 
capable not  only  of  paying  their  debts  and  maintaining  their 
families,  but  also  of  vigorously  exerting  themselves  in  the 
service  of  their  country."  ^ 

Great  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  Congress  to 
permit  the  sale  of  such  teas  as  had  been  imported  before 
Article  iii  of  the  Association  became  effective.  Alexander 
McDougall  of  New  York  urged  the  matter  on  the  attention 
of  Richard  Henry  Lee,  a  member  of  Congress,  in  a  letter 
of  June  5,  1775;  but  the  latter  replied  that,  although  such 
suffering  was  to  be  found  in  all  the  provinces,  ""Should 
Congress  determine  to  admit  the  sale  and  the  use  of  what 

'  Adams,  J.,  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  447. 

"^  Pa.  Merc,  Oct.  20,  1775.  For  other  examples,  vide  4  Am.  Arch., 
vol.  ii,  pp.  920,  1678;  vol.  iii,  pp.  729,  937-938;  Pa.  Journ.,  May  17,  i775; 
Conn.  Cour.,  Apr.  8,  1776. 

^Preamble  to  the  congressional  resolution  of  Apr.  13,  1776;  Journals, 
vol.  iv,  pp.  277-278. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  583 

tea  is  on  hand,  may  not  bad  men  take  the  advantage  of  the 
impossibihty  of  distinguishing-  this  from  newly  imported 
Tea  .  .  .  ?"  ^  The  New  York  provincial  congress,  in  a 
letter  to  the  New  York  delegates  at  the  Continental  Con- 
gress on  July  28,  declared  that  the  smuggling  merchants  had 
so  much  capital  tied  up  in  unsalable  Dutch  teas  that  they 
were  deprived  of  the  means  of  introducing  into  the  prov- 
ince Dutch  textiles  and  munitions,  which  were  badly  needed. 
The  delegates  were  therefore  instructed  to  urge  Congress 
to  authorize  the  sale  of  teas  in  stock,  at  a  fixed  price,  with 
a  tax  of  one  shilling  imposed  as  a  penalty  on  "  the  obstinate 
consumers."  " 

On  July  31.  1775.  the  question  of  renewing  the  sale  of 
teas  was  formally  presented  to  Congress  in  the  form  of  two 
petitions,  one  from  sundry  New  York  merchants  and  the 
other  from  sundry  merchants  of  Philadelphia.  Due  to  the 
pressure  of  other  business,  the  matter  did  not  receive  con- 
sideration for  some  months.  Finally,  on  November  28,  the 
petitions  were  rejected.^  The  matter  did  not  rest  here,  the 
Maryland  delegates  receiving  instructions  from  their  pro- 
vincial convention  to  press  Congress  to  permit  the  consump- 
tion of  all  teas  imported  before  February  i,  1775.  The 
subject  was  debated  for  two  days  in  mid- January,  1776, 
with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Thomas  Lynch  as  the  chief  oppo- 
sition speakers,  and  was  finally  lost  by  a  vote  of  seven 
provinces  to  five.* 

Meantime  it  became  increasingly  evident  that  the  prohibi- 

1  Lee,  R.  H.,  Letters  (Ballagh).  vol.  i.  pp.  I43-I44- 

"^4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  ii,  p.  1805.  For  the  reply  of  the  delegates  z-ide 
ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  750. 

'  Journals,  vol.  ii,  p.  235 ;  vol.  iii,  pp.  294,  298,  388-389. 

*  The  negative  provinces  were  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware  and  Maryland.  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iv.  p.  887;  Atn.  Hist.  Rev., 
vol.  i,  pp.  308,  309. 


584  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

tion  of  tea  drinking  was  serving  no  useful  purpose  and  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  fomenting  divisions  within  radical  ranks. 
"  Whenever  the  reason  of  any  law  ceases,"  declared  "Aescu- 
lapius," "  the  law  ceases  .  .  .  whether  the  law  is  in  a 
formal  manner  repealed  or  not;"  and  he  added:  "'If  we 
should  drink  tea  three  times  a  day,  we  shall  not  be  taxed  for 
it  to  Great-Britain — no  one  can  import  it  from  there  while 
we  remain  in  our  present  situation."  ^  Congress  yielded  to 
the  increasing  pressure  finally  on  April  13,  one  week  after 
trade  had  been  opened  with  foreign  nations.  They  voted 
that  all  teas  imported  before  December  i,  1774,  should  be 
placed  on  sale,  except  such  as  had  been  imported  by  the  East 
India  Company.  To  guard  against  excessive  prices,  it  was 
provided  that  Bohea  tea  should  not  retail  at  more  than 
three-fourths  of  a  dollar  a  pound  and  that  the  prices  of 
other  teas  should  be  fixed  by  the  local  committees.^ 

In  somewhat  similar  fashion,  the  provisions  of  the  Asso- 
ciation for  maintaining  the  customary  level  of  prices  had, 
after  the  first  year  of  the  non-importation,  become  increas-  -^t 
ingly  difficult  to  administer.  In  the  plantation  provinces 
the  chief  trouble  was  found  in  regulating  the  price  of  salt. 
That  commodity  was  of  essential  importance  as  being  prac- 
tically the  only  preservative  of  meat  and  fish;  and  the 
supply  in  the  South  had  nearly  reached  the  point  of  exhaus- 
tion by  the  autumn  following  the  cessation  of  importation. 
Beginning  in  the  spring  of  1775.  the  provincial  conventions 
of  Virginia.  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas  offered  pecuniary 
inducements  to  private  individuals  who  would  undertake  the 
manufacture  of  sa.lt.  ^     The  people  in  the  uplands  of  Vir- 

^  Conn.  Cour.,  Apr.  8,  1776. 

'  Teas  found  in  the  cargo  of  prizes  were  also  permitted  to  be  sold. 
Journals,  vol.  iv,  pp.  277-278. 

'Virginia,  Mch.  27;  Maryland,  Aug.  14;  North  Carolina,  Sept.  10; 
and  South  Carolina,  Nov.  28;  Smith,  C.  S.,  "Scarcity  of  Salt  in  the 
Revolutionary  War,"  r  M.  H.  S.  Procs.,  vol.  xv,  pp.  221-227. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -g^ 

ginia,  suffering  from  the  great  scarcity,  did  not  hesitate  on 
several  occasions  to  descend  upon  some  of  the  tidewater 
merchants  and  seize  such  salt  as  they  could  lay  hands  on/ 

The  local  committees  in  these  provinces  did  what  they 
could  to  prevent  the  inevitable  rise  in  prices.  For  example, 
in  August,  1775,  the  Surry  County  committee  in  Virginia 
published  Robert  Kennon,  a  factor,  for  advancing  the  price 
from  2s.  6d.  per  bushel  to  3s."  In  November  the  Baltimore 
County,  Md.,  committee  established  a  maximum  price  for 
salt,  and  authorized  past  purchasers  of  salt  to  collect  from 
dealers  any  money  charged  beyond  that  amount.^  Such 
treatment,  however,  did  not  penetrate  to  the  source  of  the 
trouble;  so,  on  December  29,  1775,  the  Continental  Con- 
gress took  measures  to  afford  relief.  Virginia,  Maryland 
and  North  Carolina,  where  the  need  was  greatest,  were 
authorized  to  import  as  much  salt  from  any  foreign  coun- 
try as  their  conventions  or  committees  of  safety  might 
think  necessary  and  to  export  produce  therefor.*  The  con- 
ventions of  all  the  continental  provinces  were  urged  to 
offer  bounties  for  salt  making.  Most  of  the  provinces  acted 
upon  this  advice  in  the  following  year.° 

At  the  leading  northern  ports  and  in  the  rural  districts 
which  were  their  markets,  the  regulation  of  prices  had 
created  more  or  less  trouble  from  the  beginning  of  non- 
importation.*' The  cause  of  high  prices  in  the  early  months 
had  been  the  greed  of  f orestallers  and  monopolists ;  nor  did 
the  city  committees  always  take  prompt  action  in  such  cases, 
especially  if  the  articles  in  question  were  not  widely  used  or 

^  Pinkney's  Va.  Gas.,  Dec.  6,  1775. 
^  Ibid.,  Aug.  22,  1775. 

*  Md.  Journ.,  Nov.  22,  1775;  also  4  ^^m.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  r54i. 

*  Journals,  vol.  iii,  pp.  464-465;  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  vol.  i,  p.  299. 

*  Smitli,  loc.  cit. 

*  Vide  supra,  chapter  xii. 


^86  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

the  advance  in  price  moderate.  By  the  winter  of  1775- 1776, 
after  the  non-importation  had  been  effective  for  about  a 
year,  the  upward  trend  of  prices  indicated  the  approaching 
depletion  of  mercantile  stocks ;  ^  but  the  radicals  in  general 
still  preferred  to  believe  that  private  avarice  was  the  sole 
animating  cause.  The  chief  centers  of  trouble  were  the 
ports  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York  and  the  markets  tribu- 
tary to  them.  The  dearth  and  high  price  of  West  India 
commodities  created  greatest  uneasiness  because  of  their 
former  cheapness  and  wide  household  use. 

At  Philadelphia  the  committee  reported  in  September, 
1775,  after  a  careful  investigation  of  the  rising  price  of 
salt,  that  there  was  a  sufficient  supply  of  the  article  in  the 
city;  and  they  warned  the  dealers  to  charge  prices  that 
would  not  call  for  the  interference  of  the  committee.^  In 
December  the  committee  fixed  wholesale  and  retail  prices 
for  oil.^  On  March  5,  1776,  the  district  committees  of 
Philadelphia  made  a  careful  examination  into  the  prices  of 
certain  West  India  commodities  and  others,  and  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  exorbitant  prices  were  the  result  of  en- 
grossing. Therefore,  on  March  6,  the  committee  estab- 
lished a  schedule  of  prices,  with  the  warning  that  violators 
of  the  regulation  would  be  published  "  as  sordid  vultures 
who  are  preying  on  the  vitals  of  their  country  in  a  time  of 
general  distress."  The  commodities  regulated  were  molasses, 
common  West  India  rum,  country  rum,  coffee,  cocoa,  choc- 
olate, pepper,  several  varieties  of  sugar,  Lisbon  and  Liver- 
pool salt,  and  Jamaica  spirits.*    Before  the  month  was  past 

^  Vide  a  clear  analysis  of  this  situation  in  a  circular  letter  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Committee  of  Safety,  May  22,  1776;  Pa.  Journ.,  June 
19,  1776. 

"  Pa.  Eve.  Post,  Sept.  7,  1775. 

^  Pa.  Journ.,  Dec.  20,  1775. 

*  Pa.  Ledger,  Mch.  9,  1776;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  v,  pp.  74,  85-86. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION 


587 


two  inhabitants  had  violated  the  resolution :  William  Sit- 
greaves  had  sold  coffee  at  a  penny  more  than  the  commit- 
tee's rate,  and  Peter  Ozeas  had  bought  and  sold  two  barrels 
of  coffee  at  a  price  higher  than  the  limit.  Both  offenses 
were  published,  and  the  men  quickly  sued  for  pardon/ 

At  New  York  the  extravagant  price  of  pins  aroused  feel- 
ing in  September,  1775:  and  the  city  committee  appointed 
a  sub-committee  to  inform  the  offending  merchants  that 
their  conduct  would  be  published  unless  they  reformed  their 
ways."  In  November  it  was  proven  to  the  committee  that 
Robinson  &  Price  had  overcharged  for  pins  and  other  arti- 
cles, and  the  firm  was  duly  published.^  In  March,  1776,  the 
merchant  Archibald  M'Vicker  was  held  up  for  a  similar 
offence.*  The  extraordinary  enhancement  in  the  price  of 
West  India  products  caused  the  New  York  committee,  on 
March  9,  to  establish  a  scale  of  wholesale  prices  after  the 
fashion  of  Philadelphia.  The  committee,  however,  declared 
that  they  intended,  from  time  to  time,  to  examine  into  the 
circumstances  of  newly-imported  commodities  from  the 
West  Indies  and  to  regulate  the  prices  accordingly.^  Five 
days  later,  six  or  seven  hundred  mechanics  held  a  meeting 
with  the  Committee  of  Mechanics  and  "  delivered  a  very 
pathetic  address  of  thanks  to  the  general  committee  of  in- 
spection for  their  kind  attention  to  the  public  good,  in  par- 
ticular for  their  resolve  of  the  ninth  instant  limiting  the 
prices  of  West-India  produce."  **     The  committee  at  New- 

^  Pa.  Ledger,  Apr.  6,  1776. 
'4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iii,  p.  702. 

*  Ihid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  1625-1627.  They  were  restored  to  public  favor  by 
the  New  York  provincial  congress  in  March,  1776,  after  an  expression 
of  contrition.    A''.  Y.  Journ.,  Mch.  14,  1776. 

*  .V.  Y.  Gas.,  Mch.  4,  1776. 

^  Ibid.,  Mch.  II,  1776;  also  N.  Y.  Journ.,  Mch.  14. 
«  A^.  Y.  Gas.,  Mch.  18,  1776. 


588 


THt  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


ark,  N.  J.,  followed  the  example  of  the  New  York  com- 
mittee with  reference  to  West  India  commodities  on  March 
15,  advancing  the  scale  of  prices  sufficiently  to  allow  for 
transportation,  waste  and  retailers'  profits.  Violators  were 
not  only  to  be  boycotted  but  were  to  lose  the  protection  of 
the  committee  for  their  person  and  property/ 

The  people  of  Connecticut  had  been  complaining  since 
the  early  months  of  trade  suspension  against  the  high  prices 
which  the  New  York  merchants  charged  the  Connecticut 
merchants  and  retailers  and  which  the  latter  had  sought  to 
shift  on  to  the  consumers.  Various  expedients  had  been 
■tried  to  eradicate  this  evil;  but  by  the  early  months  of  1776 
these  efforts  had  definitely  failed  of  their  purpose.  Many 
protests  appeared  in  the  local  newspapers.  The  New  York 
merchants  were  said  to  have  raised  their  rates  thirty  to 
forty  per  cent;  the  local  dealers  were  accused  of  "  making 
merchandize  of  their  country  and  its  liberties ;"  the  "  poor 
consumer "  and  the  "  poor  mechanic  and  labourer  "  were 
shown  to  be  the  victims  of  this  situation.'  Other  writers 
charged  that  the  farmers  were  equally  guilty  of  extortion.^ 
At  length  the  leading  towns  adopted  the  device,  which  had 
become  popular  elsewhere,  of  establishing  prices  for  the 
chief  West  India  commodities.  The  committees  of  inspec- 
tion of  the  towns  in  New  London  County  resolved  upon  this 
measure  at  a  joint  meeting  on  March  14,  1776,  and  the 
committees  of  the  fifteen  towns  of  Hartford  County  took 
like  action  on  the  twenty-seventh.* 

The  same  upward  climb  of  prices  was  to  be  found  in  the 

^  A'^.  Y.  Gas.,  Apr.  22,  1776;  also  2  N.  J.  Arch.,  vol.  i,  pp.  86-87. 

^"R"  in  Conn.  Cour.,  Jan.  29,  1776;  "  Fabius "  in  ibid.,  Mch.  25; 
"  Philo  Patriae "  in  Conn.  Gaz.,  Mch.  8. 

*"  Fabius"  in  Conn.  Cour.,  Mch.  25,  1776;  "A  Small  Merchant"  in 
ibid.,  Apr.  8. 

*  Conn.  Gas.,  Mch.  8,  1776;  Conn.  Cour..  Apr.  8. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  ego 

other  New  England  provinces.  Abigail  Adams  wrote  to 
her  husband  at  Philadelphia  on  December  lo,  1775,  that  at 
Braintree  English  goods  of  all  kinds  had  doubled  in  price, 
West  India  molasses  had  advanced  from  is.  8d.,  1.  m.,  to 
2s.  8d..  cotton-wool  from  is.  per  bag  to  3s.;  linens  were  to 
be  had  at  no  price.^  The  Providence,  R.  I.,  committee  re- 
ported numerous  complaints  and  issued  warnings  from  time 
to  time  against  advanced  prices  "  on  any  pretence  what- 
ever." ^  The  New  Hampshire  provincial  congress,  in  a 
resolution  of  September  i,  1775,  acknowledged  gross  vio- 
lations of  the  price  regulation  of  the  Association  and  attrib- 
uted them  to  the  fact  that  many  members  of  the  committees 
of  inspection  were  themselves  engaged  in  trade.  The  con- 
gress therefore  resolved  that  such  violators  might  be  cited 
before  any  committee  within  a  radius  of  ten  miles  of  the 
scene  of  the  offense.^ 

The  unavailing  efforts  of  the  committees  to  prevent  the 
rise  of  prices  furnished  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  a 
frank  abandonment  of  the  plan  by  the  Continental  Con- 
gress. The  depletion  of  the  colonial  warehouses  and  the 
opening  of  trade  with  the  world  convinced  Congress  that 
the  time  for  taking  the  step  had  arrived.  Asserting  that 
merchant  adventurers  should  be  encouraged  to  import  from 
foreign  countries  by  the  prospect  of  profits  proportionate  to 
the  danger  and  expense  incurred,  they  resolved  on  April  30, 
1776,  that  "  the  power  of  committees  of  inspection  and  ob- 
servation to  regiilate  the  prices  of  goods  (in  other  instances 
than  the  article  of  green  Tea)  ought  to  cease."  * 

'  Adams,  John,  and   Abigail,   Familiar  Letters    (Adams,    C.    F..   ed., 
Boston,  1875),  p.  130.     Vide  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iv,  p.  159  n. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  662,  975. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  521. 
*  Journals,  vol.  iv,  p.  320. 


590 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


Like  the  resolution  of  a  few  weeks  earlier  for  re-opening 
the  sale  of  teas,  this  resolution  was  a  douceur  to  the  mer- 
chants within  radical  ranks  and  to  those  wavering  in  their 
allegiance.  The  merchants  availed  themselves  of  these  new 
opportunities  without  delay.  Teas  were  everywhere  dis- 
played for  sale,  little  regard  being  paid  in  most  cases  to  the 
rates  prescribed  by  the  Continental  Congress  or  by  the  local 
committees.^  The  prices  of  other  commodities,  freed  of  all 
restrictions  by  Congress,  soared  beyond  anything  dreamed 
of  before.  The  "  enormous  rise  of  the  article  of  rum  " 
caused  Connecticut  innkeepers  to  agree  to  buy  no  more 
until  the  price  was  somewhat  reduced."  In  the  middle  of 
May  it  was  reported  that  at  Boston  pins  had  advanced  from 
8d.  to  6s.,  cards  from  2s.  6d.  to  6s.  6d.,  handkerchiefs  from 
4s.  to  i2s.,  steel  from  gd.  to  33.^  The  worthy  spouse  of 
John  Adams  declared  that  the  cost  of  living  had  doubled 
within  the  space  of  a  year.*  In  various  parts  of  New  Jer- 
sey mobs  were  formed  to  intimidate  merchants  into  lower- 
ing prices;  and  the  provincial  committee  of  safety  were 
forced  to  warn  the  people  that  the  enforced  reduction  of 
prices  would  discourage  smugglers  from  undertaking  trade 
with  foreign  countries  and  would  thus  work  a  hardship  on 
the  poorer  people  in  the  long  run.° 

The  greatest  distress  was  everywhere  caused  by  the  ex- 
orbitant charge  made  for  the  necessary  article  of  salt;  and 
Congress  intervened  on  May  30  to  advise  the  committees 

^  E.  g.,  Mass.  Spy,  July  5,  1776;  Conn.  Cour.,  Aug.  5;  N.  Y.  Gas., 
May  6,  June  10;  Pa.  Gas.,  Aug.  28;  Adamses,  Familiar  Letters,  pp. 
182-183. 

*  At  Windham  and  in  Hartford  County;  Conn.  Gaz.,  May  24,  1776; 
Conn.  Cour.,  June  10. 

*  Conn.  Gas.,  May  17,  1776. 

*  Adamses,  Familiar  Letters,  pp.  182-183. 

'"  N.  Y.  Gas.,  May  27,  1776.  • 


cnxil 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -gi 

of  observation  and  inspection  *'  so  to  regxilate  the  price  of 
salt,  as  to  prevent  unreasonable  exactions  on  the  part  of  the 
seller,  having  due  regard  to  the  difficulty  and  risque  of  im- 
portation; subject  however  to  such  regulations  as  have  been, 
or  shall  hereafter  be  made,  by  the  legislatures  of  the  respec- 
tive colonies."  ^  Provincial  authorities  and  committees  of 
observation  acted  upon  the  recommendation,  not  only  regu- 
lating the  price  of  salt  but  offering  bounties  for  its  produc- 
tion." In  all  other  respects  prices  were  left  undisturbed  by 
Congress  until  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1777,  upon  the 
hope  that  the  influx  of  goods  from  foreign  countries  under 
the  resolution  of  April  6,  1776.  would  bring  down  prices.^ 

Before  considering  the  critical  decision  which  confronted 
the  merchants  when  independence  was  declared,  it  seems 
desirable  to  re-state,  by  way  of  summary,  the  part  which  the 
merchant  class  had  played  in  the  development  of  the  revo- 
lutionar}'  movement  prior  to  that  event.  <^hreatened  with 
bankruptcy  by  the  parliamentary  legislation  of  1764- 1765, 
the  merchants  of  the  commercial  provinces  were  the  insti- 
gators of  the  first  discontents  in  the  colonies.  -The  small 
factor  class  in  the  plantation  provinces,  by  reason  of  the 
limited  nature  of  their  trade,  had  no  interest  in  the  adverse 
effects  of  this  legislation,  and  because  of  their  close  connec- 
tion with  their  British  employers  were  not  at  this  or  any 
other  time  inclined,   as  a  group,   to  lend   support  to  the 

'  Journals,  vol.  iv.  pp.  397-39^,  4*^4- 

^  Contemporary  newspapers ;  Smith,  loc.  cit. 

"'  Before  this  could  occur,  however,  the  excessive  issues  of  paper 
money  served  to  keep  prices  in  an  inflated  condition.  For  a  lucid  dis- 
cussion of  the  troubles  over  prices  in  the  later  period  with  special 
reference  to  Massachusetts,  z'ide  Davis,  A.  McF.,  "  The  Limitation  of 
Prices  in  Massachusetts.  1776- 1/79."  Cnl.  Soc.  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  x. 
pp.  119-134. 


592 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


projects  of  the  northern  merchants.  Their  attitude  there- 
fore need  not  be  considered  in  the  present  summary. 
/  The  merchants  of  the  great  northern  ports  were  startled 
by  the  mob  excesses  and  destruction  of  property  which  their 
agitation  had  caused;  but  only  the  official  class  and  the 
social  class  with  which  it  was  allied  were  moved  to  place 
themselves  squarely  on  the  side  of  parliamentary  authority 
thereafter.  The  developments  of  the  years  1767- 1770, 
fomented  by  the  mercantile  interests  in  large  part,  brought 
the  merchants  to  a  serious  realization  of  the  growing  power 
of  the  irresponsible  elements  and  of  the  drift  of  events 
toward  lawlessness.  But  for  the  ill-advised  attempt  of  the 
British    ministry   to   assist    the    East    India    Company   to 

''  monopolize  the  tea  market  at  the  expense  of  the  colonial 

merchants,  it  is  probable  that  the  great  influence  of  the 
trading  class  would  have  been  thrown  on  the  side  of  law 
and  order  at  this  time,  and  the  separation  of  the  colonies 
from  the  mother  country  postponed  or  prevented.  Some 
merchants  did  indeed  abstain  from  further  activity  against 
parliamentary  measures;  but  a  majority  joined  with  the 
radicals  to  defeat  the  dangerous  purposes  of  the  British 
t^-ading  company. 

/     The  disastrous  outcome  of  this  unnatural  alliance  con- 

/  vinced  the  merchants  as  a  class  that  their  future  welfare 

rested  with  the  maintenance  of  British  authority.     As  a 

matter  of  tactics,  many  individuals  lingered  in  the  radical 

movement  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  it;  others  were 

A  there  because  persuaded  in  spite  of  their  self-interest.    With 

the  advent  of  the  First  Continental  Congress  and  its  brood 
of  committees,  other  merchants  withdrew  from  radical 
affiliations,  some  of  them  becoming  active  loyalists.  The 
outbreak  of  hostilities  at  Lexington  and  Concord  furnished 
another  opportunity  for  decision.  Finally,  in  the  spring 
and  summer  months  of  1776,  when  the  dismemberment  of 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  593 

the  British  empire  was  impending,  came  the  time  for  the 
supreme  choice.  The  position  of  the  merchants  in  these 
last  months  needs  to  be  examined  in  some  detail.  >. 
^-  i  heir  natural  disrelish  for  the  idea  of  separation  was  in- 
creased by  the  character  of  the  arguments  which  the  rad- 
icals were  using  at  this  time  to  inform  and  consolidate  the 
mechanic  and  agrarian  classes  in  support  of  independence.^ 
Thus,  Tom  Paine's  pamphlet.  Common  Sense,  which  ap- 
peared on  January  9,  [77.6.  repelled  the  typical  merchant  > 
while  it  carried  ready  conviction  to  the  man  of  ordinar}^ 
"  common  sense,"  who,  impatient  of  the  fine-spun  political 
disquisitions  and  cautious  policies  of  past  years,  was  eager 
for  a  political  philosophy  of  plain,  unqualified  phrases  and 
for  a  definite  program  of  action  in  which  he  could  take 
aggressive  part.  That  this  great  piece  of  propagandist 
writing,  with  its  crudities  and  bad  taste,  proved  entirely 
satisfactory  to  men  of  this  type  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
one  hundred  thousand  copies  were  quickly  needed  to  spread 
the  gospel  of  Common  Sense  to  the  uttermost  portions  of 
the  United  Colonies,-  and  that  Paine's  pamphlet  became  the 
progenitor  of  a  brood  of  lesser  tracts  and  articles. 

*  The  radical  writers  made  it  clear  that  merchants  were  no  longer 
to  be  regarded  as  the  directors  of  pubUc  policy.  "Remember  the 
influence  of  wealth  upon  the  morals  and  principles  of  mankind," 
admonished  "A  Watchman  "  in  the  Pa.  Packet,  June  24,  1776.  "  Recol- 
lect how  often  you  have  heard  the  first  principles  of  government 
subverted  by  the  calls  of  Cato  and  other  Catalines  [loyalist  writers], 
to  make  way  for  men  of  fortune  to  declare  their  sentiments  upon  the 
subject  of  Independence,  as  if  a  minority  of  rich  men  were  to  govern 
the  majority  of  freeholders  in  the  province." 

*  Vide  Tyler,  M.  C,  Literary  Plisiory  of  the  American  Rcz-olution 
(New  York,  1897),  vol.  i,  pp.  469-474-  "The  temper  and  wishes  of 
the  people  supplied  every  thing  at  that  time,"  says  John  Adams  in  his 
Autobiography,  "  and  the  phrases,  suitable  for  an  emigrant  from  New- 
gate, or  one  who  had  chiefly  associated  with  such  company,  such  as, 
'  The  Royal  Brute  of  England,'  '  The  blood  upon  his  soul,'  and  a  few 
others  of  equal  delicacy,  had  as  much  weight  with  the  people  as  his 
arguments."     Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  509- 


y 


-94  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

/\But  such  appeals  to  passion  produced  a  very  different 
effect  on  the  wavering  merchants,  who  regarded  themselves 
still  as  the  only  true  conservators  of  colonial  rights.  .  Well 
might  a  writer  familiar  with  the  long  cherished  aspirations 
of  the  merchant  class  and  of  the  moderates  generally,  in- 
dignantl}'  deny  that  ''  all  men  who  oppose  the  scheme  of 
Independence  are  advocates  for  absolute  tyranny.  Were 
this  once  proved,  as  it  had  been  often  asserted,  the  contest 
would  be  at  an  end,  and  we  should  all  unite  in  hand  and 
heart  for  their  beloved  Utopian  plan :  but  it  never  has  been, 
it  never  can  be  proved,  c^he  opposers  of  Independence  in 
every  publick  body,  from  the  Congress  downwards,  and  in 
the  mass  of  the  people,  are  the  true  Whigs,  who  are  for 
preserving  the  Constitution,  as  well  against  the  secret 
machinations  of  ambitious  innovators  as  against  the  open 
attacks  of  the  British  Parliament  ;^.they  are  the  men  who 
first  set  on  foot  the  present  opposition,  and  who,  I  trust, 
will,  if  the}^  are  permitted  to  go  on,  bring  it  to  a  happy  con- 
clusion." -  And  he  added,  by  way  of  warning  to  his  fellow- 
citizens,  that  *'  a  set  of  men  whom  nobody  knows  .  .  .  are 
attempting  to  hurry  you  into  a  scene  of  anarchy;  their 
scheme  of  Independence  is  visionary;  they  know  not  them- 
selves what  they  mean  by  it."  ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  three  resolutions  of  Congress, 
passed  in  April,  1776,  for  annulling  the  acts  of  navigation 
and  trade,  reviving  the  sale  of  teas,  and  removing  all  price 
restrictions,  made  strong  appeal  to  mercantile  self-interest. 
This  advantage  was  followed  up  by  radical  writers  who  de- 

/  '  "  Civis,"  Philadelphia,  Apr.  30,  1776-, '4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  v,  pp.  1141- 
1142.  Some  months  earlier  "  Phileiren'e  "  at  Boston  had  remarked  of 
independence  that  "  in  whatever  light  we  consider  this  truly  Utopian 
project,  the  more  attentively  we  view  it,  and  the  more  thoroughly  we 
scan  it,  the  more  impracticable,  absurd,  and  ridiculous  it  appears." 
Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  1 188. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  c^c 

picted  the  presumed  materialistic  benefits  of  independence.  • 
They  painted  a  Golden  Age  of  commerce  in  the  future  more 
glorious  than  that  which  had  existed  before  1763/     They 
even  restrained  their  impatience  when  cautious  members  of 
the  trading  class  called  for  a  bill  of  particulars. 

Thus,  a  writer  at  Philadelphia  voiced  the  opinion  of  a 
good  many  merchants  in  the  commercial  provinces  when,  in 
an  open  letter  to  the  writers  on  both  sides  of  the  question, 
he  urged  that  the  whole  question  of  separation  be  entered 
into  "  fairly,  fully  and  freely."  To  explain  what  he  meant, 
he  continued :  "  with  respect  to  Independence,  some  people 
will  be  satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  such  clear  and  demon- 
strative evidence;  you  must  tell  them,  also,  of  the  partic- 
ular new  trades,  which  will  be  opened  to  us ;  the  prices  ouiX^ 
goods  will  bear  at  home  to  the  farmer,  and  what  they  will 
bring  at  such  and  such  ports,  and  how  much  those  prices 
exceed  what  we  have  been  used  to  get  for  them  at  the  mar- 
kets we  were  allow'd  to  trade  to ;  in  this  you  must  name  the 
articles,  the  prices,  and  the  places;  you  must  then  tell  us, 
the  advantages  of  buying  linens,  woolens,  cottons,  silks  and 
hard  ware  in  France,  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  other  coun- 
tries in  Europe,  and  how  much  cheaper  they  are  tlian  in 
England  and  Ireland;  .  .  .  and  whether  those  places  will 
take  in  exchange,  our  lumber,  our  naval  stores,  our  tobacco, 
our  flax  seed,  &c  &c  and  what  prices  they  will  give ;  what 
credit  it  is  custorfiary  for  those  several  places  to  allow  to 
foreigners  on  what  we  commonly  call  dry  goods  .  .  .  Next 
you  must  shew,  that  the  charge  of  supporting  government 
will  be  less,  in  a  state  of  Independence,  than  it  hath  been 
heretofore  .  .  .  Lastly  you  are  to  consider,  after  all  things 
are  candidly  stated,  whether  the  sums  annually  raised  on 
the  one  hand  to  protect  ourselves,  and  the  absolute  gain  in 

^  Articles  were  also  written  to  belittle  the  advantages  of  the  period 
before  1763;  e.  g.,  "An  American,"  ibid.,  vol.  v,  pp.  225-227. 


2^6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

trade  (over  and  above  what  we  used  to  make)  on  the  other 
hand,  do  or  do  not  render  it  most  for  our  interest  to  sep- 
arate from  Britain." 

In  Hke  manner  this  writer  demanded  that  the  opponents 
of  independence  should  make  a  ledger  account  of  their  side 
of  the  question :  "  they  must  shew  .  .  .  what  were  the  cus- 
tomary expences  of  government  in  America,  before  the 
present  rupture;  what  are  the  exclusive  privileges,  we  derive 
from  exporting  goods  to  Great-Britain;  whether  there  are 
acts  of  Parliament  in  favour  of  the  Colonies,  to  the  preju- 
dice of  other  nations,  .  .  .  and  whether  these  are  equivalent 
to  anv  loss  we  may  sustain,  by  having  our  trade  confined  to 
them ;  .  .  .  you  are  to  particularize  the  ports  we  may  trade 
to  under  the  old  regulations;  and  the  different  articles  of 
America,  which  we  may  carry  directly  to  foreign  ports ;  you 
must  also  shew  that  the  principal  part  of  the  goods  we  im- 
port from  England  and  Ireland  could  not  be  supplied  us 
upon  as  good  terms,  from  any  other  country,  and  that  those 
nations,  with  whom  we  might  incline  to  trade,  would  not 
grant  us  bounties  upon  naval  stores,  and  sundry  other  arti- 
cles, in  the  same  manner  as  England  does,  the  amount  of 
which,  annually  paid  to  the  Colonists,  you  should  sum  up. 
You  should  also  shew  cause  (if  you  can)  why  America 
ought  not  to  take  credit  to  herself,  for  all  the  taxes  paid  by 
the  English  manufacturers,  before  they  send  their  goods  to 
the  Colonies,  it  being  generally  granted  that  the  consumer 
ultimately  pays  all  charges;  you  must  also  shew,  whether 
taxes  on  goods  imported  into  America  from  Holland, 
France  or  Spain  (where  imposts  are  very  heavy)  are  or  are 
not  added  to  the  cost  of  the  said  goods,  in  the  same  manner 
as  we  reckon  them  on  English  goods.  Also  whether  the 
long  established  credit,  our  American  merchants  have  ob- 
tained in  England  in  the  interior  part  of  the  kingdom,  with 
the  original  manufacturers,  cannot  be  as  well  accomplished 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  c,gy 

in  the  new  countries  we  may  go  to;  or  whether  we  must 
take  their  goods  from  merchants  at  the  out-ports,  with  all 
the  middle  men's  or  intervening  dealer's  profits  added  to 
them  .  .  . 

''  Whether  it  is  not  a  general  established  custom  with  all 
trading  nations,  to  trust  foreigners  with  whom  they  have  no 
legal  or  political  constitutional  connexion  as  freely  as  their 
own  subjects  in  distant  parts  of  the  world;  if  this  is  not 
generally  the  case,  you  should  shew  why  America  can't 
make  treaties  with  such  powers,  in  order  to  obtain  credit 
.  .  .  You  should  also  shew  .  .  .  whether  if  France.  Spain 
and  Holland  should  refuse  to  give  credit  to  every  young 
merchant  going  out  for  a  cargo,  with  a  tolerable  recommen- 
dation, as  the  traders  in  England  have  been  accustomed  to 
do,  I  say,  if  this  should  be  the  case,  and  the  importations 
should  fall  wholly  into  the  hands  of  a  few  rich  merchants, 
why  might  not  some  mode  of  restriction  be  entered  into,  for 
preventing  the  exorbitant  exactions  they  might  be  guilty  of, 
to  the  great  injury  of  the  consumers?  .  .  . 

"  You  must  also  prove  that  England,  on  a  reunion,  would 
grant  us  such  protection  as  would  secure  our  property  in 
any  part  of  the  world  .  .  .  ;  or  if  a  reunion  should  not  take 
place,  you  are  to  point  out  sufficient  reasons  to  justify  you 
in  the  supposition  that  America  has  not,  or  may  not,  have 
a  naval  power  competent  to  the  task,  of  doing  herself  jus- 
tice. .  .  .  And  you  must  lastly  shew,  that  b}'  a  reconcilia- 
tion on  constitutional  principles,  we  shall  return  to  the  free 
money-getting  trade  we  formerly  enjoyed,  and  that  we 
shall  have  it  enlarged  to  us  upon  a  grand  national  scale, 
without  any  regard  to  the  private  emolument  of  this  or  that 
party;  but  upon  principles  of  the  general  interest  of  the 
whole  empire,  without  our  paying  any  taxes  for  the  support 
of  government  more  than  what  we  have  been  used  to  (the 
debt  arising  from  the  present  dispute  only  excepted ) .    That 


598 


THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 


the  administration  of  justice,  and  security  of  property,  will 
be  as  upright  and  safe  as  heretofore;  and  that  the  present 
happiness  and  future  Hberty  of  America  would  be  as  well 
maintained  in  a  reunion  as  by  a  separation.  I  shall  read 
your  controversy  with  great  attention,  and  so  will  thou- 
sands beside  me;  and  if,  upon  an  impartial  hearing,  it  shall 
appear  to  be  the  real  interest  of  America  to  cut  the  Gordian 
Knot  and  establish  Independence — I  declare  with  the  utmost 
sincerity  and  solemnity,  that  I  will  give  it  my  hearty  con- 
currence." ^ 

While  the  controversial  writers  never  achieved  the  par- 
ticularity which  this  writer  demanded,  the  radicals  labored 
hard  to  portray  the  economic  advantages  which  a  state  of 
independ,ence  promised  for  merchants  and  for  men  of  means 
generally^  "  Some  think  they  say  everything  against  a 
state  of  'independence  by  crying  out  that  in  a  state  of  de- 
pendance  we  enjoyed  the  protection  of  Great-Britain  ...,'* 
wrote  "  Salus  Populi."  "  But  do  we  not  pay  dearly  for  this 
protection  ?  The  restriction  of  our  trade  alone  is  worth  ten 
times  the  protection,  besides  the  sums  we  pay  in  customs 
and  other  duties  to  the  amount  of  more  than  a  million  an- 
nually. The  customs  of  the  port  of  London  alone  are  worth 
£2,000,000  sterling  per  annum.  .  .  .  Let  us  for  once  sup- 
pose an  independency,  that  we  may  observe  the  consequence. 
We  should  then  trade  with  every  nation  that  would  trade 
with  us,  i.  e.  with  every  nation  in  Europe  at  least.  Suppose 
we  were  attacked  by  some  foreign  power  in  this  state  of  in- 
dependency, for  this  is  the  bugbear ;  what  then  ?  The  nation 
that  would  be  fool  enough  to  do  it  would  raise  a  hornet's 
nest  about  its  ears  .  .  .  Every  nation  which  enjoyed  a 
share  of  our  trade  would  be  guarantee  for  the  peaceable  be- 
haviour and  good  conduct  of  its  neighbours  ...  To  ask 

1  "A  Common  Man  "  in  the  Pa.  Ledger,  Mch.  30,  1776. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  -gg 

what  we  should  do  for  fleets  to  protect  our  trade,  is  as  ab- 
surd as  to  ask  if  timber  grows  in  x\merica.  .  .  .  But  the 
war  once  over,  fleets  to  protect  our  trade  will  be  nearly  un- 
necessary. Our  trade  will  protect  itself.  It  never  will  be 
the  interest  of  any  nation  to  disturb  our  trade  while  we 
trade  freely  with  it,  and  it  will  ever  be  our  interest  to  trade 
freely  with  all  nations.  As  long  as  the  wide  Atlantic  ocean 
rolls  between  us  and  Europe,  so  long  will  we  be  free  from 
foreign  subjection  were  we  once  clear  of  Great-Britain: 
And  as  long  as  we  remain  free  from  foreign  subjection,  so 
long  will  our  trade  protect  itself."^ 

"  What  will  be  the  probable  benefits  of  independence  ?" 
queried  another  writer.  "A  free  and  unlimited  trade:  a 
great  accession  of  wealth,  and  a  proportionable  rise  in  the 
value  of  land ;  the  establishment,  gradual  improvement,  and 
perfection  of  manufactures  and  science;  a  vast  influx  of 
foreigners  .  .  .  :  an  astonishing  increase  of  our  people 
from  the  present  stock.  Where  encouragement  is  given  to 
industry;  where  liberty  and  property  are  well  secured; 
where  the  poor  may  easily  find  subsistence,  and  the  middling 
rank  comfortably  support  their  farms  by  labour,  there  the 
inhabitants  must  increase  rapidly."  '  In  a  similar  strain, 
"A.  B."  argued  the  advantages  of  independence:  "  Let  us 
try  what  improvements  we  may  be  drawn  into  by  a  general 
correspondence  with  the  whole  world,  with  people  who  will 
require  from  us  every  different  article  our  lands,  our  differ- 
ent climates,  can  produce;  and  from  whom  may  be  had 
directly,  at  first  hand,  every  thing  requisite  for  us.  Let  us 
have  access  to  the  lowest  and  best  markets  for  every  com- 
modity.    Let  this  be  the  case,  but  for  half  the  time  the 

^  Pa.  Jonrn.,  Feb.  14,  1776;  also  4  Am-  Arch.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  1142-1143. 
2  "Questions  and  Answers,"  Feb.  17,  i776;  ihid.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  1168-1171. 


/ 


6oo  ^^^  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

Colonies  have  already  existed,  and  the  doubts  and  struggles 
too,  concerning  independence,  will  be  at  an  end." ' 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  plantation  provinces,  where 
from  the  outset  the  factor  class  had  consistently  sacrificed 
the  interest  of  the  community  at  large  to  that  of  themselves 
and  their  British  .employers,  no  effort  was  made  to  win 
mercantile  support.^Due  to  their  British  nativity  and  the 
pecuniary  indebtedness  of  the  planters  to  them,  the  factors 
had  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  parasitic  excrescence  on  the 
community.  Chief  emphasis  was  placed  by  the  radical 
writers  on  the  fact  that  political  independence  would  also 
mean  emancipation  from  the  power  of  factors  and  British 
mercantile  houses.  ''A  Planter"  cited  Virginia  as  an  ex- 
ample of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  provinces  from 
Maryland  to  Georgia.  "  You  are  without  merchants,  ships, 
seamen,  or  ship-builders  .  .  .  ,"  he  declared  to  the  Virgin- 
ians in  a  newspaper  article.  "  Your  trade  is  confined  to  a 
single  spot  on  the  globe,  in  the  hands  of  the  natives  of  a 
distant  Island,  who  fix  the  market  of  all  commodities  at 
their  pleasure,  and  we  may  be  very  sure  will  rate  yours  at 
the  lowest,  and  their  own  at  the  highest  prices,  they  will  in 
any  conscience  bear.  Every  article  of  merchandise,  that  is 
not  the  produce  of  Britain,  must  first  pay  its  duties  to  the 
Crown,  perhaps  must  be  increased  in  the  price  a  very  large 
advance  per  cent  there,  and  then  be  re-exported  to  Virginia, 
and  undergo  an  additional  advance  of  seventy-five,  and 
sometimes  near  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent  here."  In 
the  northern  colonies,  he  pointed  out,  linens  and  broad- 
cloth were  sold  by  the  retail  merchants  at  the  same  price 
that  the  Virginia  factors  claimed  they  paid  as  prime  cost  in 
Britain.  "By  this  means  you  fairly  lose  seventy-five  pounds 
currency  on  every  one  hundred  pounds  sterling  worth  of 

'"Plain   Hints   on   the   Condition   of   the   Colonies."    Feb.  28,    1776; 
4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  iv,  p.  1524. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  f,oi 

merchandise  you  import  from  Great  Britain  that  is  not 
native  to  that  country;'"  a  loss  amounting  annually  to  prob- 
ably £200,000,  which  might  be  saved  by  the  opening  up  of 
a  free  and  independent  trade  with  the  world. 

Furthermore,  he  continued,  there  were  probably  fifty  for- 
eign houses  or  companies  and  two  thousand  factors,  who 
had  charge  of  the  trade  of  Virginia.  "  It  is  not  unreason- 
able to  say,  that  every  house  or  company  makes  fifteen 
thousand  pounds  a  year,  net  gain,  by  the  trade  of  this 
Colony ;  and,  consequently,  fifty  houses  will  annually  export 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling  to  Scot- 
land and  England :  which  will  be  just  so  much  saved  to  the 
Colony,  whenever  its  own  natives  shall  become  its  mer- 
chants." Supposing  the  factors  to  lay  aside  £60  on  the 
average,  here  was  to  be  found  £120,000  more,  which  was 
expended  abroad.  The  total  loss  from  these  two  sources 
alone  amounted  to  £870,000  sterling,  or  £1,087,500  cur- 
rency. 

Another  instance  of  ex^LQitation  was  to  be  seen,  he  de- 
clared, in  the  marketing  of  the  Virginia  staple,  tobacco. 
''  upon  which  the  Government  of  England  and  the  mer- 
chants of  Scotland,  have  it  in  their  power  to  put  what  price 
they  please."  The  present  rate  of  about  20s.  per  hundred- 
weight was  considered  a  very  good  average  price.  This 
tobacco  was  exported  to  Britain,  paid  a  duty  almost  four 
times  the  price  it  bore  in  Virginia,  and  their  merchants  made 
their  fortunes  out  of  it  afterwards.'  By  exporting  the 
tobacco  directly  to  the  countries  that  consumed  it,  the  Vir- 
ginia planter  would  receive  five  pounds  per  hundredweight 
instead  of  20s.  Alaking  large  allowance  for  losses,  if  the 
colonies  separated  from  Great  Britain  which  now  consumed 

'  A  reply  by  "A  Virginian  "  pointed  out  that  this  duty  was  remitted 
when  tobacco  was  re-exported  from  Great  Britain.  Dixon  &  Hunter's 
Va.  Gas.,  Apr.  27.  1776. 


5o2  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

a  large  proportion  of  the  tobacco,  its  common  price  would 
still  be  £3,  or  40s.  more  than  the  planters  received  at  pres- 
ent. Figuring  on  an  average  exportation  of  110,000  hogs- 
heads per  year,  the  gain  to  Virginia  in  a  state  of  independ- 
ence would  be  £2,200,000. 

In  summary,  this  writer  estimated  the  commercial  losses 
due  to  dependence  on  Great  Britain,  so  far  as  Virginia 
was  affected,  substantially  as  follows : 

1.  On  imports,  as  above  £200,000  currency 

2.  Merchants'  net  profits  1,087,500 

3.  Tobacco  planters'  gross  profits  2,200,000 

4.  On  wheat,  flour,  hemp,  flax,  &c.,  at  least 

half  as  much ;  but  say  1,000,000 

5.  That  part  of  the  gross  profits  of  the  mer- 

chants that  would  go  to  the  artisans, 
seamen,  sail-makers,  dealers  in  cordage, 
anchors,  etc 1,500,000 

Sum  total   £5,987,500  currency 

"That  is.  it  [independence]  will  increase  the  real  property 
among  us  annually  to  near  six  millions.  .  .  .  Here  is  a 
fund  sufficient  for  defraying  all  the  expenses  .  .  .  for  the 
preservation  of  our  liberties  against  the  avarice  of  a  nation 
much  more  powerful  than  the  English,  and  not  a  farthing 
of  our  present  property  touched.  ...  If  we  aim  only  at 
interest  in  the  present  contest,  it  appears  plainly  what  part 
we  ought  at  once  to  resolve  upon."  ^ 

(Turning  again  to  the  situation  in  the  commercial  prov- 
inces, it  should  be  recognized  that,  when  the  moment  for  the 
crucial  decision  came,  the  choice  which  every  merchant  had 
to  make  was  not,  and  could  not  be,  a  mere  mechanical  one. 
premised  upon  strict  considerations  of  an  informed  class 
interest.  Like  other  human  beings,  his  mind  was  affected 
or  controlled  by  the  powerful  influences  of  temperament, 

1  Va.  Gas.,  Apr.  13,  1776;  also  4  Am.  Arch.,  vol.  v,  pp.  914-917. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION         603 

environment  and  tradition.  Furthermore,  the  degree  to 
which  his  wealth  was  removable  was  an  important  factor  in 
his  decision,  for  his  business  and  the  good  will  of  his  cus- 
tomers were  not  commodities  to  be  packed  up  and  carried 
bodily  over  into  British  lines.  These  facts  caused  many  a 
merchant  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance  when  inde- 
pendence was  promulgated. 

Henry  Laurens  of  South  Carolina  has  left  on  record  that 
he  wept  when  he  first  heard  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence read;  but  he  aligned  himself  with  the  revolutionists.^ 
John  Ross  of  Philadelphia,  who  "  loved  ease  and  Madeira 
much  better  than  liberty  and  strife,"  was  one  type  of  a 
large  group  who  claimed  the  right  to  be  neutral.^  The 
Quakers,  whose  membership  embraced  the  principal  mer- 
chants of  Philadelphia,  took  an  official  stand  against  inde- 
pendence at  a  meeting  of  representatives  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  Quakers  on  January  20,  1776.  They  re- 
solved that :  "  The  benefits,  advantages  and  favours  we 
have  experienced  by  our  dependence  on,  and  connection 
with,  the  kings  and  government  .  .  .  appear  to  demand  from 
us  the  greatest  circumspection,  care  and  constant  endeav- 
ours, to  guard  against  every  attempt  to  alter,  or  subvert 
that  dependence  and  connection;"  and  they  urged  Friends 
to  unite  firmly  "  in  the  abhorrence  of  all  such  writings  and 

^  Wallace,  Laurens,  pp.  224-225,  2)77- 

■^Graydon,  Memoirs  of  His  Own  Times,  p.  118.  Another  interesting 
example  is  Peter  Van  Schaack,  a  New  York  lawyer,  who  had  favored 
the  Continental  Association.  In  May,  I775,  he  removed  to  Kinderhook 
where  he  studied  Vattel,  Pufendorf,  Grotius  and  other  writers  in  the 
hope  of  finding  precedents  to  support  colonial  resistance.  Having  made 
up  his  mind  to  remain  neutral,  he  declined  to  sign  the  defense  associa- 
tion, and  in  1777  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  state  of 
New  York.  The  following  year  he  was  banished  and  went  to  England 
where  he  remained  until  1785-  Then  he  returned  to  America  and  re- 
sumed the  practice  of  law.  Van  Schaack,  H.  €.,  Life  of  Peter  Van 
Schaack  (New  York,  1842),  passim. 


6o4  'THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

measures  as  evidence  a  desire  and  design  to  break  off  the 
happy  connection  we  have  heretofore  enjoyed  with  the 
kingdom  of  Great-Britain,  and  our  just  and  necessary  sub- 
ordination to  the  king  and  those  who  are  lawfully  placed  in 
authority  under  him  .  .  ."  ^  They  attempted,  during  the 
war  for  independence,  to  steer  a  middle  course,  although 
many  of  the  younger  members,  in  defiance  of  their  elders, 
joined  heartily  in  the  American  cause.^ 

\  Many  merchants,  on  the  other  hand,  actuated  by  a 
broader  understanding  of  class  interest,  frankly  cast  their 
lot  with  the  mother  country.  In  Massachusetts,  where  the 
conversion  of  the  merchants  to  the  loyalist  side  had  occurred 
earlier  than  in  the  other  provinces,  more  than  two  hundred 
members  of  the  trade  accompanied  the  British  troops  upon 
the  evacuation  of  Boston  in  March.  i775.^^The  elder 
Thomas  Wharton,  a  foremost  member  of  the  merchant- 
aristocracy  of  Philadelphia  and  a  "  non-importer "  of 
earlier  da)^s,  had  forsaken  extra-legal  activities  when  the 
results  of  the  First  Continental  Congress  showed  that  his 
efforts  to  guide  events  in  approved  channels  had  proven 
futile.  A  year  or  so  later  he  was  exiled  to  Virginia  because 
his  presence  in  Philadelphia  was  deemed  dangerous  to  the 
patriot  cause  in  view  of  the  proximity  of  the  British  army 
after  the  battle  of  Brandywine.  In  South  Carolina  Hil^s 
Brewton.  a  wealthy  merchant  who  had  been  a  candidate  of 
the  Charleston  Chamber  of  Commerce  for  nomination  to 
the  First  Continental  Congress,  departed  for  England  with 
most  of  his  movable  property  when  independence  was  de- 
clared, a  destination  he  was  not  fated  to  reach.* 

^  Pa.  Ledger,  Jan.  27,  1776;  also  Sharpless,  Quakers  in  the  Revolution, 
pp.  125-128. 

^  Ibid.,  pp.  130-137- 

'  Sabine,  L.,  Biographical  Sketches  of  Loyalists  of  the  American 
Revolution  (Boston,  1864),  vol.  i,  p.  25. 

*  McCrady,  5".  C.  under  Royal  Gov't,  p.  406. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION         605 

In  New  York  the  great  leader  of  the  mercantile  reform- 
ers, Isaac  Low,  had  fought  a  noble  battle  against  the  en- 
gulfing tide  o\  radicalism,  and  did  not  begin  seriously  to 
doubt  his  ability  to  control  events  until  the  bloody  occur- 
rences in  mid- April,  1775.  Dismayed  for  the  moment,  he 
declined  membership  in  the  provincial  convention  of  April 
20-22  and  thus  deliberately  rendered  himself  ineligible  for 
election  to  the  Second  Continental  Congress.  But  on  sober 
second  thought  he  accepted  the  chairmanship  of  the  new 
city  committee  of  One  Hundred,  and  sought  to  guide  the 
action  of  the  provincial  congress  which  began  its  sessions 
in  May.  He  would  probably  have  accepted  election  to  the 
second  provincial  congress  in  November,  but  the  radical 
party  would  have  none  of  him.  He  welcomed  the  British 
troops  when  they  occupied  the  city  in  August,  1 776.  When 
at  a  later  period  Low  petitioned  the  British  government  for 
compensation,  it  is  no  wonder  that  his  prominence  in  the 
revolutionary  movement  was  misunderstood  and  that  his 
application  was  not  at  first  favorably  received.  Many  other 
New  Yorkers  had  followed  the  same  course  as  Low.  There 
had  been  nineteen  men  of  this  stripe  on  the  committee  of 
Fifty-One,  thirteen  or  fourteen  on  the  committee  of  Sixty, 
and  perhaps  eighteen  on  the  committee  of  One  Hundred/ 
•^Of  the  merchants  who  remained  in  America  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  many  retained  the  convictions 
that  had  animated  their  class  throughout  the  ten  years' 
struggle  for  commercial  reform:  and  they  made  the  most 
of  a  difficult  situation  by  becoming  passive  spectators  or 
secret  abettors  of  the  British  in  the  struggle.  They  had  the 
mournful  satisfaction,  when  the  war  closed,  of  finding  their 
worst  fears  confirmed  in  the  inefficient  government  which 
the  radicals  established  and  in  the  enfeebled  state  of  Amer- 

'  Becker,  N.  7.  Parties,  1760-177^^-  1>P-  ^^  n..  168  n..  197-198.     Some 
of  these  men  served  on  all  three  committees,  of  course. 


6o6  THE  COLONIAL  MERCHANTS:  1763-1776 

ican  commerce  and  business  at  home  and  abroad.  In  the 
troubled  years  that  followed,  the  merchants  of  the  country 
regardless  of  their  antecedents  drew  together  in  an  effort 
to  found  a  government  which  would  safeguard  the  interests 
of  their  class.  Thus,  once  more  united,  the  mercantile  inter- 
ests became  a  potent  factor  in  the  conservative  counter- 
revolution that  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  United  States 
Constitution.^ 

*  Marshall,  J.,  Life  of  Washington  (1850),  vol.  ii,  p.  99;  Beard,  C.  A., 
An  Economic  Interpretation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
(New  York,  1913),  pp.  40-49,  56-57.  149-151,  I75,  and  passim. 


APPENDIX 

The  Continental  Association  ^ 

[The  footnotes  refer  to  pages  of  the  Journals  of  the  Continental 
Congress  on  which  subsequent  aUerations  of  the  Association  may  be 
found.] 

We,  his  majesty's  most  loyal  subjects,  the  delegates  of 
the  several  colonies  of  New-Hampshire,  Massachusetts-Bay, 
Rhode-Island,  Connecticut,  New- York,  New-Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  three  lower  counties  of  New-Castle,  Kent,  and 
Sussex,  on  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North-Carolina,  and 
South-Carolina,  deputed  to  represent  them  in  a  continental 
Congress,  held  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  5th  day  of 
September,  1774.  avowing  our  allegiance  to  his  majesty,  our 
affection  and  regard  for  our  fellow-subjects  in  Great-Britain 
and  elsewhere,  affected  with  the  deepest  anxiety,  and  most 
alarming  apprehensions,  at  those  grievances  and  distresses, 
with  which  his  Majesty's  American  subjects  are  oppressed ; 
and  having  taken  under  our  most  serious  deliberation,  the 
state  of  the  whole  continent,  find,  that  the  present  unhappy 
situation  of  our  affairs  is  occasioned  by  a  ruinous  system  of 
colony  administration,  adopted  by  the  British  ministry  a1x>ut 
the  year  1763,  evidently  calculated  for  inslaving  these  colonies, 
and,  with  them,  the  British  empire.  In  prosecution  of  which 
system,  various  acts  of  parliament  have  been  passed,  for  rais- 
ing a  revenue  in  America,  for  depriving  the  American  subjects, 
in  many  instances,  of  the  constitutional  trial  by  jury,  exposing 
their  lives  to  danger,  by  directing  a  new  and  illegal  trial  beyond 

1  The  text  is  taken  from  the  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress 
(Library  of  Congress  Edition,  Ford,  W.  C,  and  Hunt,  G.,  eds.),  vol. 
i,  pp.  7S-8i. 

607 


6o8  APPENDIX 

the  seas,  for  crimes  alleged  to  have  been  committed  in 
America:  and  in  prosecution  of  the  same  system,  several  late, 
cruel,  and  oppressive  acts  have  been  passed,  respecting  the  town 
of  Boston  and  the  Massachusetts-Bay,  and  also  an  act  for 
extending  the  province  of  Quebec,  so  as  to  border  on  the 
western  frontiers  of  these  colonies,  establishing  an  arbitrary 
government  therein,  and  discouraging  the  settlement  of  British 
subjects  in  that  wide  extended  country;  thus,  by  the  influence 
of  civil  principles  and  ancient  prejudices,  to  dispose  the  in- 
habitants to  act  with  hostility  against  the  free  Protestant 
colonies,  whenever  a  wicked  ministiT  shall  chuse  so  to  direct 
them. 

To  obtain  redress  of  these  grievances,  which  threaten  de- 
struction to  the  lives,  liberty,  and  property  of  his  majesty's 
subjects,  in  North  America,  we  arc  of  opinion,  that  a  non- 
importation, non-consumption,  and  non-exportation  agreement, 
faithfully  adhered  to,  will  prove  the  most  speedy,  effectual, 
and  peaceable  measures :  and,  therefore,  we  do,  for  ourselves, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  colonies  whom  we  represent,, 
firml}'  agree  and  associate,  under  the  sacred  ties  of  virtue, 
honour  and  love  of  our  country,  as  follows : 

1.  That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  December  next,  we 
will  not  import,  into  British  America,  from  Great-Britain  or 
Ireland,  any  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise  whatsoever,  or 
from  any  other  place,  any  such  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise, 
as  shall  have  been  exported  from  Great-Britain  or  Ireland ; ' 
nor  will  we,  after  that  day,  import  any  East-India  tea  from 
any  part  of  the  world ;  nor  any  molasses,  syrups,  paneles,  coffee, 
or  pimento,  from  the  British  plantations  or  from  Dominica ; 
nor  wines  from  Aladeira,  or  the  Western  Islands ;  nor  foreign 
indigo.- 

2.  We  will  neither  import  nor  purchase,  any  slave  imported 
after  the  first  day  of  December  next ;  after  which  time,  we 

^  Journals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  238-239,  247. 
-  Ihid.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  257-259. 


APPENDIX 


609 


will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave  trade,  and  will  neither  be  con- 
cerned in  it  ourselves,  nor  will  we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell  our 
commodities  or  manufactures  to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it. 

3.  As  a  non-consumption  agreement,  strictly  adhered  to,  will 
be  an  effectual  security  for  the  observation  of  the  non-importa- 
tion, we,  as  above,  solemnly  agree  and  associate,  that,  from 
this  day,  we  will  not  purchase  or  use  any  tea,  imported  on 
account  of  the  East-India  company,  or  any  on  which  a  duty 
hath  been  or  shall  be  paid ;  and  from  and  after  the  first  day 
of  March  next,  we  will  not  purchase  or  use  any  East-India 
tea  whatever ;  ^  nor  will  we,  nor  shall  any  person  for  or  under 
us,  purchase  or  use  any  of  those  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise, 
we  have  agreed  not  to  import,  which  we  shall  know,  or  have 
cause  to  suspect,  were  imported  after  the  first  day  of  Decem- 
ber, except  such  as  come  under  the  rules  and  directions  of 
the  tenth  article  hereafter  mentioned. 

4.  The  earnest  desire  we  have,  not  to  injure  our  fellow- 
subjects  in  Great-Britain,  Ireland,  or  the  West-Indies,  induces 
us  to  suspend  a  non-exportation  until  the  tenth  day  of  Septem- 
ber, 1775;  at  which  time,  if  the  said  acts  and  parts  of  acts  of 
the  British  parliament  herein  after  mentioned  are  not  repealed, 
we  will  not,  directly  or  indirectly,  export  any  merchandise  or 
commodity  whatsoever  to  Great-Britain,  Ireland,  or  the  West- 
Indies,  except  rice  to  Europe. - 

5.  Such  as  are  merchants,  and  use  the  British  and  Irish 
trade,  will  give  orders,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  their  factors, 
agents,  and  correspondents,  in  Great-Britain  and  Ireland,  not 
to  ship  any  goods  to  them,  on  any  pretence  whatsoever,  as  they 
cannot  be  received  in  America;  and  if  any  merchant  residing 
in  Great-Britain  or  Ireland,  shall  directly  or  indirectly  ship 
any  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise,  for  America,  in  order  to 
break  the  said  non-importation  agreement,  or  in  any  manner 
contravene  the  same,  on  such  unworthy  conduct  being  well 

1  Journals,  vol.  iv.  pp.  277-278. 

"^Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  184-185,  238-239;  vol.  iii,  pp.  308,  314,  315,  3^6,  363- 
364,  389-390,  464-465;  vol.  iv,  pp.  257-259. 


6io  APPENDIX 

attested,  it  ought  to  be  made  public ;  and,  on  the  sanie  being 
so  done,  we  will  not,  from  thenceforth,  have  any  commercial 
connexion  with  such  merchant. 

6.  That  such  as  are  owners  of  vessels  will  give  positive  or- 
ders to  their  captains,  or  masters,  not  to  receive  on  board 
their  vessels  any  goods  prohibited  by  the  said  non-importation 
agreement,  on  pain  of  immediate  dismission  from  their  service. 

7.  We  will  use  our  utmost  endeavours  to  improve  the  breed 
of  sheep,  and  increase  their  number  to  the  greatest  extent; 
and  to  that  end,  we  will  kill  them  as  seldom  as  may  be,  es- 
pecially those  of  the  most  profitable  kind;  nor  will  we  export 
any  to  the  West-Indies  or  elsewhere ;  and  those  of  us,  who  are 
or  may  become  overstocked  with,  or  can  conveniently  spare 
any  sheep,  will  dispose  of  them  to  our  neighbours,  especially 
to  the  poorer  sort,  on  moderate  terms. 

8.  We  will,  in  our  several  stations,  encourage  frugality, 
economy,  and  industry,  and  promote  agriculture,  arts,  and  the 
manufactures  of  this  country,  especially  that  of  wool ;  and 
will  discountenance  and  discourage  every  species  of  extra- 
vagance and  dissipation,  especially  all  horse-racing,  and  all 
kinds  of  gaming,  cock-fighting,  exhibitions  of  shews,  plays, 
and  other  expensive  diversions  and  entertainments ;  and  on  the 
death  of  any  relation  or  friend,  none  of  us,  or  any  of  our 
families,  will  go  into  any  further  mourning-dress,  than  a  black 
crape  or  ribbon  on  the  arm  or  hat,  for  gentlemen,  and  a  black 
ribbon  and  necklace  for  ladies,  and  we  will  discontinue  the 
giving  of  scarves  at  funerals.^ 

9.  Such  as  are  venders  of  goods  or  merchandise  will  not 
take  advantage  of  the  scarcity  of  goods,  that  may  be  occasioned 
by  this  association,  but  will  sell  the  same  at  the  rates  we  have 
been  respectively  accustomed  to  do,  for  twelve  months  last 
past. — And  if  any  vender  of  goods  or  merchandise  shall  sell 
any  such  goods  on  higher  terms,  or  shall,  in  any  manner,  or  by 
any  device  w^hatsoever  violate  or  depart  from  this  agreement, 
no  person  ought,  nor  will  any  of  us  deal  with  any  such  person, 

^  Journals,  vol.  iv,  p.  224. 


APPENDIX  ('.iX 

or  his  or  her  factor  or  agent,  at  any  time  thereafter,  for  any 
commodity  whatever.^ 

10.  In  case  any  merchant,  trader,  or  other  person,  shall 
import  any  goods  or  merchandise,  after  the  first  day  of 
December,  and  before  the  first  day  of  February  next,  the 
same  ought  forthwith,  at  the  election  of  the  owner,  to  be 
either  re-shipped  or  delivered  up  to  the  committee  of  the  county 
or  town,  wherein  they  shall  be  imported,  to  be  stored  at  the 
risque  of  the  importer,  until  the  non-importation  agreement 
shall  cease,  or  be  sold  under  the  direction  of  the  committee 
aforesaid ;  and  in  the  last-mentioned  case,  the  owner  or  owners 
of  such  goods  shall  be  reimbursed  out  of  the  sales,  the  first 
cost  and  charges,  the  profit,  if  any,  to  be  applied  towards 
relieving  and  employing  such  poor  inhabitants  of  the  town  of 
Boston  as  are  immediate  sufferers  by  the  Boston  port-bill;, 
and  a  particular  account  of  all  goods  so  returned,  stored,  or 
sold,  to  be  inserted  in  the  public  papers ;  and  if  any  goods 
or  merchandises  shall  be  imported  after  the  said  first  day 
of  February,  the  same  ought  forthwith  to  be  sent  back  again,. 
without  breaking  any  of  the  packages  thereof. 

11.  That  a  committee  be  chosen  in  every  county,  city,  and 
town,  by  those  who  are  qualified  to  vote  for  representatives 
in  the  legislature,  whose  business  it  shall  be  attentively  to 
observe  the  conduct  of  all  persons  touching  this  association; 
and  when  it  shall  be  made  to  appear,  to  the  satisfaction  of  a 
majority  of  any  such  committee,  that  any  person  within  the 
limits  of  their  appointment  has  violated  this  association,  that 
such  majority  do  forthwith  cause  the  truth  of  the  case  to  be 
published  in  the  gazette ;  to  the  end,  that  all  such  foes  to  the 
rights  of  British-America  may  be  publicly  known,  and  imi- 
versally  contemned  as  the  enemies  of  American  liberty;  and 
thenceforth  we  respectively  will  break  off  all  dealings  with 
him  or  her.- 

1  Journals,  vol.  iv,  pp.  320,  404. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  67. 


6i2  APPENDIX 

12.  That  the  committee  of  correspondence,  in  the  respective 
colonies,  do  frequently  inspect  the  entries  of  their  custom- 
houses, and  inform  each  other,  from  time  to  time,  of  the 
true  state  thereof,  and  of  every  other  material  circumstance 
that  may  occur  relative  to  this  association. 

13.  That  all  manufactures  of  this  country  be  sold  at  reason- 
able prices,  so  that  no  undue  advantage  be  taken  of  a  future 
scarcity  of  goods. 

14.  And  we  do  further  agree  and  resolve,  that  we  will  have 
no  trade,  commerce,  dealings,  or  intercourse  whatsoever,  with 
any  colony  or  province,  in  North-America,  which  shall  not 
accede  to,  or  which  shall  hereafter  violate  this  association,  but 
will  hold  them  as  unworthy  of  the  rights  of  freemen,  and  as 
inimical  to  the  liberties  of  their  country. 

And  we  do  solemnly  bind  ourselves  and  our  constituents, 
under  the  ties  aforesaid,  to  adhere  to  this  association,  until 
such  parts  of  the  several  acts  of  parliament  passed  since  the 
close  of  the  last  war,  as  impose  or  continue  duties  on  tea, 
wine,  molasses,  syrups,  paneles,  coffee,  sugar,  pimento,  indigo, 
foreign  paper,  glass,  and  painters'  colours,  imported  into 
America,  and  extend  the  powers  of  the  admiralty  courts  beyond 
their  ancient  limits,  deprive  the  American  subjects  of  trial 
by  jury,  authorize  the  judge's  certificate  to  indemnify  the 
prosecutor  from  damages,  that  he  might  otherwise  be  liable 
to  from  a  trial  by  his  peers,  require  oppressive  security  from 
a  claimant  of  ships  or  goods  seized,  before  he  shall  be  allowed 
to  defend  his  property,  are  repealed. — And  until  that  part  of 
the  Act  of  the  12  G.  3.  ch.  24,  entitled  '"An  act  for  the  better 
securing  his  majesty's  dock-yards,  magazines,  ships,  ammuni- 
tion, and  stores,"  by  which  any  persons  charged  with  com- 
mitting any  of  the  offences  therein  described,  in  America, 
may  be  tried  in  any  shire  or  county  within  the  realm,  is  re- 
pealed— and  until  the  four  acts  passed  in  the  last  session  of 
parliament,  viz.  that  for  stopping  the  port  and  blocking  up  the 
harbour  of  Boston — that  for  altering  the  charter  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Massachusetts-Bay — and  that  which  is  entitled 
"An  act  for  the  better  administration  of  justice,   &c." — and 


APPENDIX 


613 


that  "  for  extending  the  limits  of  Quebec,  &c."  are  repealed.^ 
And  we  recommend  it  to  the  provincial  conventions,  and  to 
the  committees  in  the  respective  colonies,  to  establish  such 
farther  regulations  as  they  make  think  proper,  for  carrying 
into  execution  this  association. 

The  foregoing  association  being  determined  upon  by  the 
Congress,  was  ordered  to  be  subscribed  by  the  several  mem- 
bers thereof ;  and  thereupon,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  respec- 
tive names   accordingly. 

In  Congress,  Philadelphia,  October  20,  1774. 

'^Journals,  vol.  ii,  p.  125, 


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VITA 

The  author,  Arthur  Meier  Schlesinger,  was  born  at 
Xenia,  Ohio,  on  February  2.^,  1888.  He  was  educated 
at  the  Ohio  State  University,  where  he  received  the  de- 
gree of  A.  B.  in  1910.  He  then  studied  at  Columbia 
University  where  he  was  University  Scholar  in  History 
(1910-1911)  and  University  Fellow  in  History  (1911- 
1912J,  attending  the  seminars  of  Professors  Osgood  and 
Dunning.     He  took  his  A.  M.  degree  in  191 1. 

The  positions  which  he  has  held  are  as  follows  :  in- 
structor in  political  science,  Ohio  State  University,  1912- 
1913;  instructor  in  American  history,  1913-1914;  assis- 
tant professor  of  American  history,  1914-. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  board  of  editors  of  the  Ohio 
History  Teachers  Journal  (1916-)  and  the  author  of 
the  following  writings :  "  Maryland's  Share  in  the  Last 
Intercolonial  War,"  Maryland  Historical  Magazine, 
volume  vii ;  "Colonial  Appeals  to  the  Privy  Council," 
Political  Science  Quarterly,  volume  xxviii ;  "  The  Up- 
rising against  the  East  India  Company,"  Political  Science 
Quarterly,  volume  xxxii ;  "Basis  of  the  Ohio-Michigan 
Boundary  Dispute,"  in  C.  E.  Sherman's  The  Ohio-Michi- 
gan Boundary,  Mansfield,  1916  (reprinted  in  Michigan 
Geological  and  Biological  Survey,  Pub.  22,  Geological 
Series  18);  "'History  Teaching  and  Geography,"  Ohio 
History  Teachers'  Journal,  bulletin  5 ;  "  Survey  of  High 
School  Texts  and  Source  Books  in  United  States  His- 
tory," Ohio  History  Teachers'  Jo7irnal,  bulletin  5  ;  and 
in  collaboration  with  H.  C.  Hockett,  A  Syllabus  of 
United  States  History,  Columbus,  191 5  (revised  edition, 

1917). 

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